When I was in my late teens, I was called into the Bishop’s office, out of the blue, and interrogated for over one and half hours, regarding sexual acts that I knew nothing about. With each question the Bishop asked, I answered NO, as I was unaware of what he was talking about. I was…
My father was in church leadership as were all the males in my family dating back to Joseph Smith himself and are direct descendants of him. My maternal grandfather was a stake president, the first in the stake where I now live. He had a large family and every one of his children as well…
It was summer and we had a large garden in Nothern California we shared with neighbors and ward members. My dad was a postman and money was always tight for our big family. I was not yet old enough to date – 16 years old. But I my lessons in young women’s taught me that…
If you were with me in Utah right now, I would walk you out past my old neighborhood thru a farmer’s field about a quarter of a mile to the back edge of the field where an irrigation canal passes thru and a clump of trees still grows there today. One tree that’s there which…
This is my story for all the men and women who’s hearts and souls are broken because of men at church. This My story for you. I didn’t know who he was until he was my leader, before then, he was the new kid’s dad. He told us stories about him, about his violence. I…
I was ~middle school age when my Mormon leaders started bringing this stuff up and asking me about the same stuff. Wish I’d known back then how messed up it was. In my case. My father drove me late at night to have an “emergency interview” with our Mormon bishop when they found some “magazines”…
I’m a pretty sexual person. I don’t know if it’s a consequence of my youth or whether it’s just how I am and I was made to feel ashamed of something that is just natural for me. When I was 14 I ‘sinned’ with a boy in my stake. My mum found out because I…
When I was in high school I was sexually assaulted by a classmate. When this happened I was totally naive to anything sexual in nature, so obviously I didn’t quite understand what had happened to me or that what had happened was not a normal sexual experience. After some time of feeling guilt, I went…
I was a new missionary at the MTC. The MTC President groomed the sister missionaries by constantly praising and complementing us as if he had us on a pedestal. At the same time he was very controlling over our behavior. He wouldn’t allow us to talk much to the Elders and we couldn’t laugh. He…
I’ve faced mental illness for as long as I can remember. Depression, social anxiety/phobia disorder, auditory hallucinations, etc. And on top of everything, I’m a bisexual male who was raised Mormon. I had a hard time coming out to my family because they’re Mormon, and I knew the kind of response I’d receive, but after…