My father was my Church authority all during high school and I had to do these interviews with him. It was excruciatingly humiliating and, in retrospect, I think it was awful for him to be put in that position as well. He was not a perfect father or husband and, being in the “mission field,”…
In the year 1991, when I was 16, in Portland, OR…..I was date raped. I said NO. Several times. It was not consensual. At the time, I didn’t even understand what that was and that it was rape. Call me naive at that age, but I didn’t. Those topics just weren’t discussed in my family…
When I was about 11 or 12, I had just started in the Young Women’s program. I was ahead a year in school so I was kept with my class and not my age group. This was way back when the youth met on a different night. One night we were doing what they called…
My church upbringing taught me that sex was something to feel guilt and shame for. Starting around age 12 My Bishops regularly asked sexually explicit questions regarding my sins. I was sexually abused from the ages of 8 to 11 by a family member who was also a member of my ward. The perpetrator’s father…
My bishop was not a pleasant man. At 12 years old, my parents drove me to his home for my first temple recommend interview. My parents made themselves comfortable in his living room while I was led into a dark, cramped, hoaders-esque home office. I remember he had a dog, a border collie, and I…
When I was fifteen years old I had a boyfriend who was manipulative, coercive, and abusive. I was confused because he told me he loved me and he bought me flowers. He made me feel special. Behind a closed door, he started to force me to do sexual things that I didn’t want to do.…