#321 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,4,7,8,9

Innocence Taken I grew up going to the Sugar Land wards of the Houston Texas South Stake. I was going in for my first temple interview to do baptisms for the dead. I was very naive and at the time didn’t know what self pleasure or masturbation were or what sexually active meant. I was…

#315 Name Hidden. CS: 1,3,5,6,7,9,10

My story began growing up not only being molested by an older neighbor, but also in a house full of siblings who had all learned throughout their childhood how to masturbate with themselves and with each other. It was a sickness that slowly trickling down to every child born into the household. I was the…

#310 Melissa G. CS: 1,4,7,8,9. Other: Shame after a rape

I was raped when I was 17 by the Stake President’s 22 year old RM son. I was terrified to say anything to anyone because I was afraid I would be punished. When I finally told my parents, they helped me report it to the police, the police told me they didn’t believe me and…

#299 Name Withheld. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9

I was a 14 year old child. I was raped. Had just had a lesson on “virtue”, the week before. I was so traumatized. I didn’t tell my parents because of the whole “it would be better to have your child come home in a pine box than to lose their virtue”, rhetoric. I went…

#291 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,6,7,8,9. Other: Self-harm

As far as I can remember, I was attracted to other boys – at least since age 6 – but I had no idea it was sexuality, let alone homosexuality. I discovered the term at 11 or 12 when reading ‘The Miracle of Forgiveness’, written by the LDS prophet Spencer W. Kimball, a required reading…

#280 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9. Other: lost friends

My worthiness interview story only scratches the surface of how the Mormon Church destroyed my life. The details of exactly how my life was destroyed I left out because the memory is too painful to revisit but basically, I lost my one and only true friend as a result of the first interview described here…

#266 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,4,6,7,8,9

I am in the process of writing my story about the sexual issues and shaming that happened within the church. It’s really hard to do. I’ve been in therapy for years, and it still sucks. I still feel lost with it. There are so many facets to it. Like old neighbor men asking about my…

#263 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,7,8,9

I’m one of the lucky ones who had only good men as bishops throughout my life and yet I still did not escape unscathed. I discovered masturbation by about age 4 or 5. My parents caught me and I then got the entire penis-vagina sex talk with a heaping side of the impending fires of…

#254 Name Hidden. CS: 1,2,3,8,9

My parents are amazing people. They are always there for me (turning 30 this year) and have never judged or meant to harm me or my brothers in any way whatsoever. That said, the influence the Mormon church has had on their parenting was without a doubt very harmful. I have been drawn to women…

#248 Maddie K. CS: 1,2,3,4,7,8,9

I was 12 years old when I found out what masturbation was. I did not find out from the internet (not a thing at that time). I did not get curious looking at dirty pictures or even from being told by friends what it was. I was told in graphic detail what it was by…