My family and I joined the church when I was 12. I had to have an interview with the bishop for a temple recommend to get sealed with my parents. I went in to the room on my own with the Bishop and he asked me if I masturbated. I had no idea what that…
I remember meeting with my bishop at 14. He had me describe the sexual acts I’d shared with my boyfriend. I didn’t even have the words for some of the things we had done, so I awkwardly tried to describe the acts. It didn’t even occur to me that an adult man should not be…
I was an active divorced LDS member, in love with a man who had converted, been baptised and had his temple recommend in hand when he proposed marriage for all eternity to me. We were both mature, had both been married before. This was the culmination of years of study on his part, (he had…
For years I was asked sexually explicit questions by grown men who held positions of power and authority over me. I was raised that way. I thought it was normal. Decades later I can now see the damage that was done to me. I do not want my children to be exposed to this. It…
Wow, where do I start? In 1985 when I was 22, I was raped and assaulted with a knife and almost killed in my apartment, by a stranger. I escaped my perpetrator before he could cut my throat. It was every bit what you would see on a lifetime movie. He was caught, tried and…
Dread, shame and guilt at every annual worthiness interview from my teenage years beginning in the early 1980s into adulthood for masturbation. The interview didn’t even need to be particularly invasive because the Mormon socialization which shames this behavior is so predominate, the mere interview itself brings the heavy weight of that social condemnation to…