When I was 12 I was a very devout LDS kid. I wanted to be “worthy” and tried my best to follow every rule and expectation. At my 13 year old “worthiness” interview with the bishop, he told me that he needed to talk to my grandma (who I lived with) about the modesty of…
I was sexually abused by a family member from the age of 6 to almost 15. When it all came to light, I was asked to see my Bishop (alone). My Bishop tried to be a psychologist and told me that I CHOSE to be abused when I was in the spirit world so it…
I had a boyfriend in high school and we were both very active LDS. We’d been dating for about 6 months when he told me he would kill himself in I didn’t have sex with him. I did because I knew him and I knew he would follow through with his threat. I did not…
I didn’t realize until I was at college that masturbation and strong sexual desire is a normal attribute of nearly every healthy person. My high school years were spent thinking that I was a deviant freak. Those years were counted in weeks that followed the shame cycle; dreading the coming of Sunday when I’d have…
I was 13 years old when I went to a young men’s camp for the first time. In Brazil, these camps were usually made away from the city, at a farm. I took my journal with me and there I had written about the feelings I had for one of the boys. I had written…
I was raised LDS and was used to bishop interviews. My first bishop was pretty respectful, the farthest he would go was, “do you obey the law of chastity?” And when I didn’t know what that meant instead he asked “have you sinned in a way that disrespects your sacred body parts?” Enough said, it…
I wasn’t born into a “mormon” household. I was born into a “wordly” household, as I was often told as a 9 year old little girl trying to navigate my way through life in the LDS church, while having two addicts for parents. It was often hard for me when my grandmother would take me…
It was October of 2007, and I had just turned 8. I was told I had to meet the bishop, to see if I was worthy enough, so I could get baptized. I went in nervous as all hell, and wondered what he was going to ask me. He started off with the standard questions…
I served as Young Women’s president for almost 10 years between three wards. On several occasions, the Bishop of the ward I was serving in made comments to me about the young women referring to their clothing, their bodies and the thoughts it gave them and encouraged me to teach them the appropriate way to…
My children will not be interviewed by bishops because of what I faced as a teenager. When counseling about my “sins,” my bishop, a man who lived on the next street and was the same age as my dad, asked me a very specific sexual questions. These were things I wouldn’t/couldn’t discuss with my closest…