A new battle is waging on gay turf, and perhaps it's one you didn't expect to hear much about, given how much attention is already bestowed upon gay marriage and non-discrimination laws. This feud is between gay activists – who, let's admit it, are always deemed to be "in the right" by friends of the queer community – and "mixed" couples. That's "mixed" as in one person is straight and the other is gay — and they're living happily ever after, raising children and enjoying suburbia.

Before you get ahead of yourself, these arrangements have nothing to do with husbands living on the downlow, secretly cheating on their wives. Couples like Ben and Jessie Christensen (Ben is gay, while Jessie is straight) knew about each other's orientation before they tied the knot. So why get married? Because, they argue, as Mormons getting married is what God wants them to do, gay or straight.

But this straight-gay marriage (the Christensens have two children together) is bound for doom if you look at statistics. And gay support advocates, especially among the gay Mormon community, claim this type of relationship is wrong in so many ways: It doesn't allow a gay man to truly identify as homosexual; it traps women in unhealthy relationships; it creates an atmosphere of confusion for their children.

But the Christensens and other couples soldier on, struggling with intimacy and using writing as their outlet. They've joined others in similar situations online, blogging about their experience, though Ben and Jessie may be the most explicit and identifiable among the group; for obvious reasons, many blog anonymously. Though the man upstairs is always watching — but isn't that why they got married in the first place?

Gay, Mormon, married [Salt Lake Tribune]