Guest: Kimberly Brooks Mazella, Founder of the Straight Forward Project

Kristin Kalbli interviews Kimberly Brooks Mazella, a straight spouse whose career as a psychotherapist has lead to the founding of her non-profit, the Straight Forward Project. Kim discusses the results of her survey research on Straight Spouses, and how her data, which sheds light onto the straight spouse experience, could eventually be used to help straight spouse heal.

In Kim’s own words: “A person has to be able to hold two competing truths at the same time: on the one hand it is wonderful that our spouses have come out, and if they’re living authentic lives and they’re happy and they’re in relationships – we want that for everybody; we all deserve to live authentic lives. Andthe deceit and the damage that is done to unsuspecting spouses who are married to closeted LGBT folks is real, and it is valid, and it is true. And both of those things co-exist.”