Ted Haggard: I Never Claimed To Be Heterosexual

Ted Haggard, the gay that won't go away, now says he never claimed to be "completely heterosexual", as was widely reported last year.

In an HBO documentary set to air Jan. 29, disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard says he never claimed to be heterosexual, as was once reported, and he continues to struggle with same-sex attraction. But he's committed to living a heterosexual life because he believes it's better for children to be raised by a mother and a father.

The "completely heterosexual" quote came from Rev. Tim Ralph, one of a four-member oversight board that was trying to figure out whether Haggard should be allowed to return to his ministry.

He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting- out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing." Ralph said three weeks of counseling at an undisclosed Arizona treatment center helped Haggard immensely and left Haggard sure of one thing.

Yesterday Haggard told the Colorado Springs Gazette that he's been struggling with his sexualtiy for his entire life.

"The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick me out, and the church would exile and excommunicate me. And that happened and more," he says.

The Gazette story closes with this:

Haggard now sells insurance -- which the documentary shows - but he laments that he's not good at it. He says he left hundreds of fliers on people's doors, and didn't get any responses. "At this stage in my life, I am a loser," he says.