One concerned citizen in the LGBT community has started a petition to cancel TLC's upcoming series "My Husband's Not Gay," a show about four Mormon men who are in relationships with women but are sexually attracted to men.
TLC will premiere "My Husband's Not Gay" next week and Josh Sanders, the gay Christian man who created the petition on Change.org, claims the show "promotes the false and dangerous idea that gay people can and should choose to be straight in order to be part of their faith communities."
The petition set a goal of 532 signatures. It blew right past that low number to more than 74,000 supporters.
None of the men identify as gay, but do admit to having a sexual attraction to other men. Their wives support and defend them, with one woman saying in the show's promo that she wouldn't "change anything about" her husband, despite his attraction to men.
"I was office mates with one of my best friends and I said, 'He told me he's gay,'" Tanya, wife of Jeff, told ABC News. "And she goes, 'I told you that, twice.'"
Jeff tried to explain his homosexual urges as having a taste for a favorite but unhealthy food.
"You could say I'm oriented towards doughnuts and if I was being true to myself, I would eat doughnuts a lot more than I eat doughnuts," he told ABC News. "But am I miserable? Am I lonely? Am I denying myself because I don't eat doughnuts as I might like to eat doughnuts? I'm not."
The four men, who live in Utah, also attend faith sessions together where their group leader tells them, "The whole act [of homosexuality] is against the teachings of the Gospel." Another man sees his dueling attraction as a problem he can solve through his Mormon faith.
"There's no marriage that is perfect. Ours isn't. But with our faith in God, we believe we can overcome anything," he says in the show promo.
The LGBT rights group GLAAD has also expressed its disapproval with the TLC series.
"I think it's irresponsible to be airing a show with the content that gives the idea that sexual orientation is a choice," GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told ABC News. "That's a discredited and old idea."
Sanders, who endured six months of conversion or "reparative therapy," warned that these men could face "horrific consequences" if they try to change who they are. He also disagreed with TLC's use of the men's struggles for "entertainment" value.
"TLC is presenting victims' lives as entertainment, while sending the message that being gay is something that can and ought to be changed, or that you should reject your sexual orientation by marrying someone of the opposite sex," Sanders wrote. "This message is harmful to both LGBT people and communities of faith."
"My Husband's Not Gay" will premiere on Jan. 11 at 10 p.m. on TLC.
