Ed Smart, the father of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart, talked about his struggles to accept his sexuality in his first network TV interview since coming out earlier this year.
The 64-year-old father of five, who divorced his former wife of 34 years Lois, told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King about the difficulties he faced trying to reconcile his sexuality with his faith.
“During the course of my life I certainly found men to be attractive,” he told King during an emotional interview that aired Monday, but he was taught that “that was not acceptable,” and that you were a “bad person” if you thought those things.
Fighting tears, Smart added that he “never wanted [being gay] to be part of me.”
“Why would God give this to me?” he wondered, adding that he sought therapy, he prayed, he asked church guidance, he even asked for counseling from his bishop.
But, since nothing ever worked, he finally understood that being gay is “absolutely not a choice.”
“How do you cure being gay?” he asked himself. “There is no cure,” he told King in a powerful moment of the interview. “And I wish my [former] wife knew that.”
In August, Smart came out to his family and friends in a Facebook, writing, “I have recently acknowledged to myself and my family that I am gay.”
“Lois has been a loyal wife, an extraordinary mother, who has had to endure an impossible part of this journey,” he wrote. “I deeply regret the excruciating pain this has caused her. Hurting her was never my intent. While our marriage will end, my love for Lois and everyone in my family is eternal.”
Over the weekend, Smart was the keynote speaker at a conference for LGBTQ youth in Lehi, Utah.
The Encircle Summit focused on identity, acceptance, and “those tensions between Mormonism and the LGBTQ community,” according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
“[My sexuality] was something I could no longer keep back,” he told events’ attendants about his coming out. “And I’m grateful for the love and support I’ve felt.”
