Alana's Case

“This story was provided via Human Rights and Equalities. Names and some details have been changed for anonymity.”

Alana is a Lesbian and the daughter of a religious minister.

She expresses that from age 12, she knew she had same sex attraction but was obliged to suppress and hide this from her birth family and church family.

She describes how this burying of herself resulted in her self-harming herself (detail removed) and that her parents blamed this on people she was hanging around with in school, influencing her, so they began homeschooling her.

She was restricted in her engagements with people and it was only when she was nearing 18 years old and on a religious weekend away from home did she finally express her identity to another girl whom she suspected of being a lesbian at the event.

After her 18th birthday , the leaders from this other girls church,  paid a visit to her family home and informed her father what she had said to this other girl from their church.

This other girl had been found to have had a girlfriend in her congregation and had been  outed by others and in the process of church members questioning her about what other lesbians she had been engaging with,  she gave Alana’s name.

Alana was outed and her father called in his superiors into his church , who conducted upon Alana several ‘ deliverance sessions’ .

Alana was signposted to Human Rights and Equalities.

She was in a terrible state and was self-harming which her church and family took as her not expressing distress but rather that  demons being inside her, and that these demons were  forcing her to cut herself 

They argued too that she had entered the ‘ prayer sessions’ of her own free will, and could have left at any time but that it was Alana who chose not to. 

Alana describes that she felt compelled to go along with everything because she was frightened of the consequences if she did not. She describes those consequences as being expulsion from her birth family and her church family and for the church leaders making her feel self-loathing for having same sex attraction. 

She describes how she knew she could not change and says that God in his design does not make mistakes and that God made her as she is but that for the sake of being rejected and cast out and for the sake of those she loved she tried to suppress her feelings and who she really was and so she went into the rooms in church and into people’s homes for these arranged exorcism sessions  but she really did not want to be there.

Alana continues to try to be accepted by her family who say they cannot accept her due to her sinful nature.

Her father has said that she brings shame on the family and has disgraced him as a church leader as it’s expected of him to lead the way for others. Her father no longer speaks to her. Her mother occasionally meets  Alana in a close by town but they have to keep it a secret from Alana’s father.

Alana is in a relationship with a woman but has been told by her mother never to speak about this to her and to only speak about other things. Alana continues to attend the counselling we (Human Rights and Equalities) secured for her to this very day and is now no longer self-harming.

She has found a semblance of peace, whilst still being incredibly saddened at not being accepted and especially rejected by her father, whom she continues to love and adore.