When I was 23 I was a recent BYU grad, still living in BYU housing (thus in a BYU ward), and in graduate school (not BYU). I also had a boyfriend—my first really serious boyfriend. One time we were making out and he pulled down my underwear and penetrated me with his finger. I didn’t…
I admitted to premarital sex as a teenage girl. I did this willingly because I was told it was the right thing to do and I believed it. The whole process was quite traumatizing, but I had already been shamed enough to have suicidal ideation prior to admitting to the sin in the interview. He…
When I was 15 I had an almost 18 year-old boyfriend. He tried to force things on me and sometimes had the upper hand He tried to go too far and almost did, he broke up with when I told him I wanted to wait. I was devastated. Shortly after, I had to have my…
I was 14 when I moved into a new ward. I was as innocent as they come. My bishop called me in for an annual birthday interview. The topic of oral sex was brought up. It wasn’t an add on question from the law of chastity. It seemed totally random. I had no idea what…
During one of my worthiness interviews while I was a teenager, my bishop informed my that my best friend and I were too close, and that people were talking. He proceeded to drill me for an hour about what we did when we were alone. Did we hold hands, had we kissed, had we ever…
I grew up in the same ward as a lot of my Facebook friends. We all had the same Bishops and ward leaders and I am so grateful to those that have shared their stories. At age 11, I was in a room alone with the First Counselor for a worthiness interview. I was asked…
The following is my personal story of childhood abuse and how church leadership concealed and diminished its significance. It is long. I come from a large Mormon family. I was born-in-the-covenant and raised “knowing” that it was all true. There was no choice in attending church, seminary, or serving a mission. Those choices were made…
Mine is a story of abuse. Not from a bishop but from a mormon dad who rose in the levels of mormon leadership because he did things like eloquently pray. He was, also,to put it bluntly a suck-up and as we all know this is a feature that helps you get far in mormonism (or…
I was roughly six or seven when I was molested by an older cousin during a family vacation. (Everyone was Mormon, and all the men mentioned below are Melchizedek priesthood holders.) I remember freezing, thinking that if I just held still, it would all be over. I had zero idea what was happening, and thanks…
My story happened not because of a Bishop with inappropriate intentions, but because the several men I dealt with were trying their best with very little guidance and only very confused cultural teachings to work with. My parents did NOT speak with us about sex. I learned from a medical textbook my mom gave me…