I didn’t know what masturbation was until I was a teenager, but found out that I had been doing it since I was six on an off again. At young women’s some girls introduced me to erotic novels and I ended up reading a few. I felt horribly guilty afterward and talked to the bishop.…
To tell my story I have to include some back story. When I was a child, probably 4th grade I was sexually assaulted. This is something I am still coming to understand as my mind had blocked many of the memories from me as a form of protection. Subsequently as a young child I always…
It was my first temple trip as a new Beehive. Back then before the Albuquerque temple was built, the nearest temple to my small town in New Mexico was Dallas, Tx. That meant that youth leaders and parents would carpool and we would stay the entire weekend in order to do baptisms for the dead.…
Protect LDS Children: My Story, Trevor Cobb, March 25, 2018 Around 1992-1993, when I was a deacon in Olney, Maryland, my mom caught me looking at a Playboy in the bathroom. Since I was 7-8 years old I had been riding my bike with the Mormon neighbor boy, _______, who was four years my senior…
The earliest I have a memory of abuse was at the age of 6. At age 7, I remember preparing for baptism, I was excited, I was optimistic that my sins would now be washed away, so now I could start a new life. Such a fairy tale I told myself!…
My story has roots going back stemming from before I was born but I don’t think it is my place to tell them right now. My personal story mostly begins when I was 9 or 10. After school one day my friend and I were talking about “sex”, I put “sex” in quotes because we…
Many years ago during a family trip to San Francisco where we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, 11-year-old me stopped and peered down into the still, gently swirling water and tried to talk myself out of throwing my body into the soothing void. It seemed such an easy way to release the suffering that…
To begin, I will say that I was three when a man first took away my sexual agency. My father, a pedophile, showed me porn that included Rape, origies, and children. Fast forward, to age 12, when I had my first worthiness interview. Somehow, it felt normal, because it was for a group youth trip…
When I was 14 I reported my rape to my bishop. Except since I was 14 I didn’t know it was rape. I wasn’t even really sure what happened. My bishop, a man who I believe was doing his best, was untrained in such matters. I repented. For my rape. My rape went unreported and…
I was born into the LDS church, raised and lived my whole life in the heart of LDS country, Utah County. There’s no escaping the influence of LDS church because it is everywhere here, and most people are LDS. This type of situation leads to feeling like you are in an inescapable bubble of shame…