A young Lyric, with their dog Ripley, looking very miserable in their Easter dress.

You Weren’t the Problem. The System Was. Here’s How I Know.

For most of my life, I believed, falsely, that I was inherently flawed and unworthy of compassion, kindness, and respect (from other people and from myself).

It’s hard to say exactly when, where, and why this feeling of inadequacy started, because my memory is a bit wonky, and multiple events played into it. However, there are a few events in particular that do stand out to me. Continue reading You Weren’t the Problem. The System Was. Here’s How I Know.

Young Lyric, who believed they were doomed to hell, dressed as a black cat.

Religious Indoctrination of Children Is Child Abuse: Here’s Why I Won’t Apologize for Calling Religious Indoctrination Child Abuse.

As a child, who was indoctrinated into the Christian faith, but struggled to believe what I was told “was the unquestionable truth,” I spent the first 11 years of my life terrified that I was going to hell (and was convinced that I was a bad person) because I couldn’t force myself to believe in Jesus and the Christian God (who I was told was the ONLY path to salvation and everyone who wasn’t a believer would go to hell). Continue reading Religious Indoctrination of Children Is Child Abuse: Here’s Why I Won’t Apologize for Calling Religious Indoctrination Child Abuse.