00:00 Hey there, I have a lot of people ask me in relation to my relationship with my mother,
00:05 I escaped a very strict religious cult that bans family members from speaking to people,
00:12 family members that leave once they've been excommunicated. Mother's Day is particularly
00:16 hard for me because I miss my mother incredibly, but I always let her know that I still love her
00:20 and I'm still here and I'm still the same person. I just am not controlled by the same religion that
00:26 she's controlled by. Follow my journey as I share with you how strict and insidious this cult is
00:31 here in Australia. It's worldwide but majority is here in Australia. Yes, Sydney. Crazy. That's where
00:37 the leader is too, by the way, just a fun fact. So I sent my mum a message as I do every Mother's Day
00:42 saying, "I just want you to know how much I love you and I'll always be here for you." She always
00:49 comes back with the same response, "Thank you," that prayer emoji and a hug. And I know some of
00:55 you will go, "Well, she responds like..." But guys, let's be real. This isn't even the bare minimum.
01:00 And I'm not outing my mum here. I'm sharing with you how strict and how toxic this cult is on
01:06 people in there because my mum would be suffering from this and people that leave like myself.
01:12 And also to share with other people that might be in a similar situation saying that, you know,
01:16 to show that I'm seven years out, nothing has changed with me. I'm just, I'm unashamedly me.
01:23 I'm not afraid to be gay, which is, you know, one of the main reasons I left,
01:27 because they're extremely homophobic. But she'll have to get approval on this response and watch
01:33 the dialect or the language change because it won't be her saying this. So you can see here,
01:39 I've said, "Would you let me take you out for a coffee?" No reply, no response. And she'll come
01:45 back probably in a day or so with a scripture and as to why she can't. Now, this is not my
01:50 mum speaking, I know, because she doesn't really know it that well. She's not really into the
01:56 religion. She was born into it. But yes, just to show you that I do do everything to try and,
02:00 you know, maintain a relationship with my mum. My mum is acting not on her own actions, but on that
02:06 of the church. When I left, I just laid on the lounge and I just looked up at the ceiling and I
02:12 didn't know time sort of hours sort of fleeted into days, into nights, into weeks. And I remember,
02:17 I think like for three weeks, I couldn't work out what day it was or time. Seeing my own family,
02:22 they obviously weren't supportive. It was all about them and, you know, how you're making us
02:28 feel. No regard for how I was feeling or how I was dealing alone in this new world. And I remember my
02:36 grandma saying, "The kids are praying for you. Where are you? They're crying for you." And I'm
02:40 like, "They have each other. I'm just alone." I didn't know that life would be better on the
02:45 outside because I knew what the costs were to leave, how much you had to lose in terms of the
02:51 family, your family, your whole world, and starting all over again. And remember, all my life, I was
02:56 brainwashed to believe that life isn't better out there. You're better off to die than to leave.
03:02 The first point was when I realised I was gay and then discovered that homosexuality is accepted in
03:09 the real world generally. And the second point was that I had so many conditions whereby I would be
03:16 loved. Everything I had to do to be a family member was on condition. It was never just you
03:22 as you are, authentic self, we love you. I think the last night of my life in there, my brother had
03:28 been out drinking with his cousins or our cousins and came home and violently attacked me, got
03:36 physical. And that's when I thought, "I need to get out of here. This is physical." The people
03:39 they're protecting us from are the wrong people that they need to be protecting us from. They
03:44 need to be protecting us from themselves.
03:46 [Music]
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