Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, reveals that he is gay

Ed Smart, the father of the survivor of the kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, came out as gay. Ed Smart announced the announcement in a letter to Facebook to his friends and family on Facebook, and confirmed it to local media and CNN.

Smart expressed difficulty in "recognizing a part" of himself that he had struggled to face for many years and that he "never wanted to accept". The 64-year-old father admits that going out brought his "lot of challenges", but wrote that it was an "immense relief".

"I want to share the news that I have just acknowledged to my family and to myself that I am gay," wrote Smart. He continued by addressing the difficulties of testifying in "silence for years, many LGBTQ people both inside and outside the church having been ridiculed, rejection, rejection and outright humiliation ".

He stated that his relationship with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had changed. Earlier this year, church officials said that gay marriage was no longer a sin that would lead to a dismissal from the church.

"As an openly homosexual man, the Church is not a place where I find more solace," he wrote. "It is not my responsibility to tell the Church, its members or its leaders what to believe about being LGBTQ, I can only believe what I'm saying. thinks to be right, but my responsibility is to continue to grow, to mature mature as a child of celestial loving parents, and to do it in a way that is spiritually healthy for me. "

"Recognizing that I am a gay man, is free, but many of those I love a lot are also suffering," he wrote. Smart acknowledges that the "excruciating pain" that has caused the death of his wife Lois, with whom he has five children. He filed for divorce on July 5, reported the Associated Press.

Smart and his family are in the public eye since the kidnapping of his daughter, Elizabeth, removed from their home in Salt Lake City in 2002, at the age of 14. She spent nine months in captivity before being released.

Elizabeth, 31, a mother of three, said she was deeply saddened by the separation of her parents, but that nothing could change her love and admiration for them.

"My parents taught me in my childhood that they would love me unconditionally, no matter what was happening," she said in a statement to the AP. "Their decisions are very personal, and as such, I will not judge, I focus instead on the love and support of them and other members of my family."