I’ve slept on this, and woken up just livid about it, because I’ve had to relive it through discussions with people who won’t listen to victims.
I’m livid at the deafness of the people who won’t listen because, as far as they know, their child hasn’t been affected. Yet. From the ages of 8 – 13, I was molested by a male in my community, a member of the LDS church, in a different ward. It filled me with shame and guilt. I was also subjected to watching this man sodomize his minor brother, and other neighborhood kids. I was terrified and didn’t tell anyone because I was so filled with guilt and shame at being ‘unclean’.
It all came to a head when I was 18 and ran into a member of his family at my workplace and had a panic attack. I ended up telling my mom what had happened. My mom was furious at what had happened. This man was also currently preparing for an LDS mission interview. My mom called his bishop and reported what I had told her.
Do you know what the bishop did??? He counseled the man who molested me to CALL ME and talk to me about it. I got a random call from my MOLESTER, panicked, and hung up, feeling terrified and re-traumatized. The man molested and sodomized 3 other minors that I knew of and were the police ever notified? NOPE. His parents? NOPE.
He got to have a private discussion with the bishop, who brushed it under the rug, recommended the last thing a therapist would ever had recommended, and then he went off on an LDS mission. I got to experience years of therapy, sexual dysfunction, emotional trauma, guilt, and shame. I AM NOT ALONE.