Gay Mormon comes out to his community. And records their reactions.

When this Mormon man decided to come out to his family and friends, he did the obvious thing: recorded their reactions, and turned it into a YouTube video…. As you do.

But their reactions were not what you would expect. Watch the clip below.

The man behind the video, Jimmy Hale, says that people have reacted to his coming out positively, and “reached out with love, understanding and empathy”.

“The doctrine of the Mormon church isn’t going to change. But members of the church are changing, in that they are becoming more understanding of those of us who are gay and Mormon.”

The most interesting part of the story is that, as a gay Mormon, Jimmy must remain celibate for life. His feelings about that: “Sucks!”

Jimmy doesn’t speak about his celibacy at length in the video – other than to ask that people be kind, as “us gay Mormons are already very lonely” – but he also appeared recently on American television program Say Anything!, to talk about how his sexuality coexists with his faith.

Advocate.com reports:

“The whole being celibate and openly gay thing doesn’t sit well with a lot of people,” Hales told Say Anything guest host Nancy Giles. “And frankly, I can’t blame them.”

Giles presses Hales on his gay-but-celibate future, asking if he’s really OK with his fate.

“Yes,” replies Hales tentatively. “I’m willing to endure this life. It’s going to be horrible and it’s going to suck. I’m going to be lonely, and no one wants that. But I believe in the end, it’ll be worth it.”

Hale is so earnest and lovely that you hope he finds his way through this ‘test’ – he says, “this test is a preeeetty big one” – with his optimism intact. His sister also has YouTube channel called ‘What Mormons Believe’, although she hasn’t yet tackled the subject of homosexuality.

What do you think of Jimmy’s ‘coming out’ project? What about the idea of celibacy for life?