Episode 474: Wes Haws

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Wes Haws shares his story. Wes talks about coming out as gay after serving a mission to his future wife. They decided to get married and that marriage lasted 11 years. During these years, Wes survived a brutal attached in Ethiopia which resulted in difficult health and financial challenges. Wes rebuilt his career and now owns Blue Zoon (https://bluezoo.us/). Wes also talks about finding a way to move forward and the work he has done (including therapy) to accept and love himself. Wes talks about how/why his married ended and his subsequent excommunication (positive and loving experience for Wes). Wes talks about his hopes for the future and his respect and support for all path that LGBTQ Latter-day Saints take. Wes also talks about being your best personal self before deciding the best path if you are LGBTQ and LDS. Thank you for being on the podcast Wes. I think it helps LGBTQ Latter-day Saints to hear a variety of stories. I invite each LGBTQ Latter-day Saint to write their own story—and hearing a variety of stories provides principles and insights to better write your story. You are a good man Wes doing your best on a complicated road. Thanks for sharing your story. It helps bring us together as the same human family.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.2	My guest on today's podcast, joining me via Zoom, and we hope that our Zoom connection works well, and you can hear Wes.
0:16.0	Well, is my friend Wes Haas. Welcome to the podcast, Wes.
0:20.4	Oh, thank you for having me.
0:22.1	I think, are you in an airport right now?
0:25.8	I am, yes.
0:27.7	So I think you're in the Boise Airport.
0:30.0	So if you hear airline announcements or people in the background, that's just the reality of these days with Zoom, but I think you'll hear Wes just fine.
0:39.1	By way of background, Wes is going to share his story like many other guests as a gay Latter-day Saint.
0:44.4	Wes is 38.
0:46.5	He grew up in the church in Idaho.
0:50.2	He served a mission in New Jersey.
0:53.0	He married a woman and they're now divorced.
0:55.8	He will talk about coming out to her in the dating process and just about that marriage that did end up in divorce.
1:05.1	Rex will talk about or Wes will talk about a serious brain injury.
1:10.1	He was a victim of a near fatal attack and he'll talk about a serious brain injury. He was a victim of a near fatal attack, and he'll talk
1:14.6	about that. He'll talk about eventually being excommunicated from the church. He's respectful for
1:19.6	the church, but just making his best way forward. He will probably talk about his career as an owner of
1:27.3	a series of aquariums and what he's
1:29.4	doing in that space. But our joint hope is just hearing all these different stories you're
1:35.0	listening to just helps bring us together. It's the same human family. And we humanize people and we
1:40.8	honor people and we recognize, you know, most of my guests are just trying to do
	...

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