I was a 15-year-old cheerleader when I was called into the bishop’s office for making out with my boyfriend. The bishop, a 50-something real estate agent, asked me to go over every point of the encounter in fine detail more than once. What I was wearing, where/how my boyfriend touched me, how it felt, if…
When I was in preschool, several kids and I used to play a game called “show me your bare bumb”. It was a secret game we played with each other and clearly a normal developmental thing . My own son has told me he and several preschool buddies showed each other their privates in which…
I was sixteen and excited to date. I dated a boy who wanted to get physically close, but I said no. He raped me repeatedly the day before we went to homecoming. I told my bishop who in turn asked if I liked any of it. He asked what I did to egg him on.…
I am so scared to tell my story because of the backlash I could receive from family members who may read this so I have decided to share it to the public anonymously. When I was just 9 years old, my Mom caught me “exploring” myself. I can’t even call it what it is because…
For years I was asked sexually explicit questions by grown men who held positions of power and authority over me. I was raised that way. I thought it was normal. Decades later I can now see the damage that was done to me. I do not want my children to be exposed to this. It…
Dread, shame and guilt at every annual worthiness interview from my teenage years beginning in the early 1980s into adulthood for masturbation. The interview didn’t even need to be particularly invasive because the Mormon socialization which shames this behavior is so predominate, the mere interview itself brings the heavy weight of that social condemnation to…
I had just turned 16 years old. Raised in the church I was very sheltered and my mother never talked to me about sex. There was a 19 year old boy several doors down from my home that was obsessed with me. He would follow me around and would tell me that he prays every…
When I was around 12 years old I was introduced to masturbation by a friend. At first I didn’t know it was wrong in the church’s eyes and continued to do it. After I read online the church’s stance on masturbation, I felt horrible. What I did was “second to murder”! I felt so much…
I have been a member for just over 23 years. I have never shared this story with anyone besides my counselor. I have always feared backlash from family or friends and even from the church. I share it here now because it is time. I want to heal and to move on. Sharing my story…
From them telling us our bodies, the very thing that gives us life…is a sin. From telling us we are responsible for other people abusing us. We are children that are born into a storm. Some cannot escape. Some can. My cousin was a victim of of pedophilia by my uncle since the age of…