AE: Has your family been treated differently by their congregation since your coming-out, and was that a concern of yours?
Jacob: I think they’re about to be. … I don’t think the congregation in Montana knows about it yet. … My parents are still very, very faithful and very involved in their congregation. We wondered if they might get some flak from being involved in the television series. The bottom line here is that Mom and Dad did not do anything wrong. They represented their faith as truly as they knew how; they represented all their concerns. They were model Jehovah’s Witnesses, and if some Witnesses don’t like that just because they don’t think somebody should participate in something that shows them in any way public, then that’s their problem. What they [Mom and Dad] believe is their life. They spend hours and hours going from door to door trying to teach other people. They went on television and shared the Truth, as they see it. … There’s nothing wrong with that.
AE: Have you been disfellowshipped?
Joshua: No.
AE: Are you worried that the Elders might instruct your family to disassociate themselves from you?
Joshua: I have a feeling it’s probably too far along. We haven’t gone to a meeting in many years. We don’t represent ourselves as Witnesses anymore. So there would be no reason to separate the flock, protecting them by disfellowshipping us. I have a feeling they’ll just leave well enough alone. There will be Jehovah’s Witnesses who — after learning about us and hearing what we do — they’ll decide to treat us like we’re disfellowshipped. I don’t think anything structured will actually happen.
Jacob: That’s a real change for Joshua … I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard him say that. I think that’s good. I think that’s true. I don’t foresee any action being taken. I think our closest friends who are still in the Truth in Montana will still be close friends of ours. We’ll have great relationships with them, and we’ll have great relationships with our parents too. … There will be those who choose to not associate with us anymore, but that will be OK because we don’t associate with them now, anyway. As far as being disfellowshipped … I think we’re too far down the road to bother with it.
AE: Do you consider yourselves role models, not only for younger gay males hoping to have a music career, but also for closeted Jehovah’s Witnesses?
Jacob: I don’t consider myself a role model at all, but I hope that … maybe people will see our story and say, “Hey, I can do this too. I can be normal, and I can take a chance.” It’s time for people to get over it. People should be able to be who they are and be accepted for that. … We’re all just normal people trying to make it through life, and love, and be happy and be successful. We’re all the same. There’s no freakin’ difference. So maybe when people see Josh and I, and we manage to pull this off … people will be like, “There you go.” It’s time for people to stop thinking in such a narrow way.
AE: Have you noticed a change of perception about gay people in the minds of Jehovah’s Witnesses? Is it becoming less of a “sin”?
Joshua: Questions like that and answers to them become very complicated, very quickly …
Jacob: Why, why, why? Answer the f***ing question!
Joshua: OK, you’re going to answer it now.
Jacob: I see huge changes, absolutely. Not only among my friends, but the organization. The organization looks at gay people as less of a big deal than it was 10 years ago.
AE: There have been other artists who have come out later in their careers: Elton John, George Michael. Do you think being honest at the beginning of your career is better than later?
Joshua: They’ve all done that [been closeted], and they did it for a reason. They wanted to be successful and make money, and they wanted people to be open to hearing their music. … They were afraid if they came out at the beginning that they wouldn’t be [accepted]. That’s exactly what we’re scared of. Is the world ready? We are about to find out, my friend.
AE: Do you think it’s safer to come out now?
Joshua: I have no idea that that’s true. Jacob seems to think it’s going to be OK. We’re like the lamb tied to the stake here.
