Steven Fales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steven Heard Fales (b. 1968) is a playwright and actor who has gained broad recognition in both the gay community and the LDS community for his one-man play, Confessions of a Mormon Boy.
Fales was born in Utah and grew up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. As is common in the LDS community, he served a two-year full-time mission for the church in Portugal.
While he had been aware of his own homosexuality for some time, after his mission Fales sought help from his church leaders to overcome it. He spent (how much) time working with reparative therapists, including Joseph Nicolosi, and was eventually convinced that marrying a woman would bring about final success in changing from homosexual to heterosexual. He was reassured and supported in this by Mormon clergy.
Fales married Emily Pearson on December 15, 1993 in the Salt Lake Temple. Ironically, Emily had watched her own devoutly Mormon parents divorce because her father was gay (he later returned to the family home to die there of AIDS). This story was told in her mother Carol Lynn Pearson's book, Goodbye, I Love You. While Fales and his new wife knew first-hand of the challenges they faced, they aspired to "rewrite the story, but with a happy ending". The actual marriage, however, was miserable from the start.
While newly married, Fales completed his studies at Brigham Young University, where Emily had also studied theater. After graduating, Fales moved his family to Connecticut to pursue an MFA in musical theater at the University of Connecticut. Upon obtaining his degree, they returned to Utah to be near their families, as they now had two children.
Eventually, in spite of continued intense therapy sessions, Fales could no longer hide or control his homosexuality. As his actions became increasingly self-destructive, he had to admit to himself and Emily that his sexuality had really not changed. Their marriage ended in July 2000. Due to the circumstances of the divorce, Fales was also excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He rejected Mormonism and moved to New York City. Broke, and feeling angry and betrayed, he became a male prostitute and became addicted to crystal meth[1]. Eventually, however, he abandoned this lifestyle and began a journey toward self-acceptance.[2]
Fales began writing his one-man play, Confessions of a Mormon Boy, while still engaged in this struggle. It detailed his life, first as a devout Mormon trying to live up to his faith, then as a rebel against his former values, and finally as a man approaching peace with himself. Its first reading was at the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City in 2001. Fales had stopped working as an escort only three weeks before the premiere.
Emily Pearson, an actress and writer who has custody of the two children of the marriage, has founded an on-line support group for straight women married or formerly married to gay men.[3] She is currently writing a memoir.[4]
Confessions, which began as a standup comedy routine, has changed much from its original form. As of 2006, it has appeared in a dozen cities, including a lengthy run off-Broadway.
Fales' most recent production, also autobiographical, is titled Mormon-American Princess and deals with the subject of narcissism and its destructive power. It premiered in San Francisco in February, 2008. Describing the musical, Fales noted, "God has seen me through excommunication, divorce, prostitution, and drugs -- now we're working on narcissism and it's not going well."
