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Warning: Sexually Explicit content.

Legend for Consequences Suffered (CS):

Inappropriate shame and guilt
Childhood self-loathing
Adulthood self-loathing
Normalizing children to sexual questions by adult men. (Grooming)
Sexual abuse. (Pedophilia)
Impaired sexual relations after marriage.
Years of recovery from childhood shaming. Often lasting decades.
Suicide Ideation
Attempted Suicide
Suicide of a loved one or friend.

#834 Kandis G. CS: 1,2,4,7

When I was about 11 or 12, I had just started in the Young Women’s program. I was ahead a year in school so I was kept with my class…

#835 Ashley M. CS: 1,2,3,4,7

In the year 1991, when I was 16, in Portland, OR…..I was date raped. I said NO. Several times. It was not consensual. At the time, I didn’t even understand…

#836 Name Hidden. CS: 1,6,7

My father was my Church authority all during high school and I had to do these interviews with him. It was excruciatingly humiliating and, in retrospect, I think it was…

#837 Name Hidden. CS: 1,4,5,7,8

My mother went to the bishop when we were young and my fathers abuse escalated. She was threatened with excommunication for attacking the priesthood and warned not to continue in…

#838 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7,8

I was born and raised in the church and had both fantastic Bishops and then Bishops and other leaders that made my skin crawl. I was asked if I masturbated…

#839 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: Left the church because of my experiences

When I was about 13, a new bishop was called to my ward. From my very first encounter with him, he made me dread going to church. To everyone else…

#840 Stephanie B. CS: 1,3,6

ONE of many disturbing things that happened to my son by himself behind closed doors with our bishop (besides the fact that he was even in there, as I had…

#841 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,8,9

Growing up, I was always the “perfect” Mormon girl; Molly if you will. I never swore, never broke commandments, and certainly never thought the church could ever make mistakes. EVER.…

#842 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,4,7

When I was 12 years old, I had a meeting with my Bishop. He asked me about the law of chastity. I told him that I sometimes masturbated. He became…

#843 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3

I had a mission president, ____ ______, in Tampa Florida who took pride in being direct, and often times blunt. During my second interview with him, he asked me if…

#844 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7. Other: My children suffered these things. While I am not concerned about my name being known, I am concerned for my boys and their privacy.

My boys went to our bishop in Henderson, NV in 1999 and told him that their older stepbrother (my husband’s son) was raping them, sexually abusing them and forcing them…

#845 Mindy B. CS: 1,3

I am one of the lucky ones that didn’t experience inappropriate questions from my bishop when i was under 18. I’m not so lucky, however, as I experienced systemic abuse…

#846 Michelle S. CS: 3,4,5,6,7,8,10. Other: Dissociative Identy Disorder

My story is too long so I’m writing a book. To offer some insight I can tell you that my father was taking religious classes at BYU from 1959 -1967…

#847 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7. Other: PTSD

Growing up in the church, I first learned of masturbation from a bishopric member asking if I did it. I was young and being interviewed to go to the temple…

#848 Melody P. CS: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10. Other: Normalizing me to physical control and sexual questions by adult men meant that my child was subjected to these things as well, to both our detriment. 🙁

Dear Sam: Thank you for fighting to protect LDS children. They need all the protectors they can get. It has taken me all week to write this letter; I have…

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