I don't want to be considered an apostate as I strongly believe that we all have a gift our Creator has given us ... our "free will". We have the right to think and do what we want as long as we follow the Golden Rule ... "treat others the way you would like to be treated".

"I found out that the Watchtower and Awake offered only simplistic solutions of the type: 'Do you sin? Well, then don't!'"

"To complicate my story a bit, I just so happened to be a transsexual. Our society in general has a hard time accepting people like me so I can’t fairly lay all blame for my life at the witnesses’ doorstep, however, my life did become a living hell."

"Convinced that the solution to my problem was to fill my life with service, I quit higher education and dedicated my life to service, sharing my gift by spreading the message to all whom deserve it. I was 22 at the time, I had served as a missioner for about 2 years. I didn’t have much, no money or luxuries; I was living in a room I rented. I was happy doing such fulfilling service, yet the ghost of the abuse, rape and homosexuality was haunting me."

"I need to tell you two things. Number one, I’m gay, and, number two, I don’t want to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses any longer."

"I figured I would probably die, but at that point I didn't really care. I decided that all the questions I'd always secretly had were going to be answered."

"I knew I would not find any support from within the Organization, so why keep putting myself through that sort of pain?"

"While I originally decided to leave the Organization solely due to my sexual orientation, I later came to realize how many other areas it was also wrong in."

"I reconstructed my life by going back to college, often feeling like I was the oldest student in each class."

"Because I knew exactly what was to follow, I had confirmed with my employer that I could stay at her place when I got kicked out, which (unsurprisingly) happened."

"I would like to meet the elders that excommunicated my daughter and allow me to judge your daughters. As being an ex-Jehovah's Witness, your Bible does not condemn a man loving another man, or a woman loving another woman, lest you interpret love and sex as one concept."

I find that suicide is very common among witnesses, because they don't give you a healthy way to deal with the real issues, but just kind of sweep them under the carpet making everything 'go away'.

"I was depressed and angry when I finally started visiting sites for gay youths. I knew it was 'wrong' to visit these sites. But I was desperate for someone to talk to that knew how I was feeling."

"Looking back retrospectively, there was an elitist bourgeois mentality in my congregation, which I have since discovered is not unique to the congregation to which I belonged."