Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began
By Alex Cooper and Joanna Brooks
4/5
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About this ebook
When Alex Cooper was fifteen years old, life was pretty ordinary in her sleepy suburban town and nice Mormon family. At church and at home, Alex was taught that God had a plan for everyone. But something was gnawing at her that made her feel different. These feelings exploded when she met Yvette, a girl who made Alex feel alive in a new way, and with whom Alex would quickly fall in love.
Alex knew she was holding a secret that could shatter her family, her church community, and her life. Yet when this secret couldn’t be hidden any longer, she told her parents that she was gay, and the nightmare began. She was driven from her home in Southern California to Utah, where, against her will, her parents handed her over to fellow Mormons who promised to save Alex from her homosexuality.
For eight harrowing months, Alex was held captive in an unlicensed “residential treatment program” modeled on the many “therapeutic” boot camps scattered across Utah. Alex was physically and verbally abused, and many days she was forced to stand facing a wall wearing a heavy backpack full of rocks. Her captors used faith to punish and terrorize her. With the help of a dedicated legal team in Salt Lake City, Alex eventually escaped and made legal history in Utah by winning the right to live under the law’s protection as an openly gay teenager.
Alex is not alone; the headlines continue to splash stories about gay conversion therapy and rehabilitation centers that promise to “save” teenagers from their sexuality. Saving Alex is a courageous memoir that tells Alex’s story in the hopes that it will bring awareness and justice to this important issue. A bold, inspiring story of one girl’s fight for freedom, acceptance, and truth.
Alex Cooper
Alex Cooper made legal history in Utah by winning the right to live under the law’s protection as an openly gay teenager. Now twenty-one, she lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Reviews for Saving Alex
25 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a really compelling read. Though I don't think this is Brooks's best writing, Alex and her story draw you in and don't let you go. Two days of few breaks. What hit me the hardest was realizing that Alex is younger than I am. I knew this was a recent story, but I've read a lot of memoirs and they are all by people older than me, so that was the mindset I was reading this book with. But no. She's about the age of my younger brother. This was just a couple years ago, and conversion therapy is still very much a thing in Utah.LGBT issues are divisive within the Mormon church. Alex wrote her story mostly for kids like her who know deep down that they're not broken, but this book also has the potential to soften some hearts. There is power in listening to the stories of individuals we lump into general groups. I was impressed with the charity Alex had toward her parents' beliefs and where those beliefs came from. While I'm sure hurt and anger were and probably still are there, she doesn't blame her parents. She stresses how important it was for them to believe in a plan where everything would be alright in the end. When Alex didn't fit that plan, her parents had to find a way to make things right. Letting go of the plan you have clung to for your whole life is hard and painful, and it's easier to try to get the people you love to fit back into the plan; after all, they used to fit, they can fit again. Throughout the book Alex does an excellent job of understanding and helping the reader understand her parents' worldview. This is an important read.Minor nitpick: I can't stand the click-bait-y subtitle.