Joe Dallin, author, comes to Stonewall Live! July 21 9PM EST

Joe Dallin, author of Perfect: The Journey of a Gay Mormon comes to Stonewall Live! Thursday, July 21, 9PM EST

At the age of thirteen Joe Dallin, was faced with an ominous fact: that he was gay. The inner battle between his religious and sexual identities raged for ten years, nearly driving him to suicide. However, one night he realized that the monumental effort he had put into becoming a straight, mainstream Mormon man was not only an exercise in futility, but simply the wrong path for him. Around the next corner, he found the peace and happiness that had always been so elusive.

Dallin writes of his attempts to corral burgeoning same-sex feelings while listening to his grandfather's rants about homosexual "pigs" or reading the Mormon scriptures' condemnation of them. His father offered a more liberating stance on sex – that it was natural and should be enjoyed, as long as it remained within the bounds of heterosexuality.

His radical dress code (from "preppy, pretty-boy fag" to the Mormon temple garments) and secret love of boys bled through into his adolescence, where college life stealing glances at towel-clad muscled boys in the common bathrooms

Joseph Dallin was born into the heart of Mormonism, Provo, Utah, and grew up in neighboring Orem. After living as a faithful member of the church, which culminated in a two-year mission to Texas, he came out as a gay man in 1998 at the age of twenty-three.

He holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and currently resides in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Perfect, with the exception of some name changes and minor alterations in chronology, is the true story of his journey.

Join me on Thursday, July 21, 9PM EST at www.blogtalkradio.com/stonewalllive