Growing up, I was not talked to about my sexuality in what I would consider a healthy way. I don’t fully blame my parents, because I was not an easy child to have serious or deep conversation with. I was the oldest and always felt it was my responsibility to be the example my family…
As a teen, I remember being asked if I masturbated in bishop interviews and these questions continued through the mission, my years at BYU, and singles wards after. I became accustomed to the questions and feared every invitation to meet with the bishop, suspecting I would again be asked. In my youth, I lied about…
In short, i was 9-11 years old and my parents found out me and my friends had found pornography. They took me to meet with the bishop, a close family friend. He wanted to know all about it. He asked where I found it. I told him it was in some bushes along the highway.…
I was a new Convert and I had just turned 18. In my home ward all of the Moms had it planned out which boys from the Ward their Daughter’s were going to marry. It was my first introduction to the meat market. My first Sunday my Mom stood up and introduced me in relief…
I’m a Mormon male who grew up in a small Mormon town in Idaho. The first time I confessed was when I was 13. After a Deacon’s Quorum lesson about “self-abuse”, I spent a lot of time considering the things they had talked about and I really internalized the teachings that masturbation was very awful.…
When I was 17 I went to a “party” at a college-aged guy’s house. He was the friend of a friend of mine, a friend I’d expected to be there that night but never came. It was awkward just the two of us, drinking vodka he’d provided as we waited for more people to show…
When I was 12, I had a bishop in the Centerville Utah ward named _____. He interviewed me on several occasions. He asked me personal questions about masturbation, if, when and how often, and how and where, I did it. He made me come in to his office repeatedly and asked me if I had…
So I was always kind of a weird child(at least, in my mind) I can remember sneaking into our family’s computer room in the middle of the night when I was 9 to google pictures of naked women. Keep in mind that my parents had never had the sex talk with me. At this time,…
I would’ve been 14 when I first found out that viewing pornography and masturbating were “sins.” I told my bishop and he encouraged me to tell my parents so I either told my mom or she found out, I don’t remember which. For the next 7 years though, I was trying my damnedest to keep…
I joined the church when I was 12 years old, I had never masturbated or looked at pornography. I was certainly old enough to partake in these activities, I just had not arrived “there” yet. I was still a child who had not reached puberty. I had no idea that within a year my sexuality…