FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 14, 2018

Media Advisory: Sam Young to Hold P ress Conference in Salt Lake City on Sunday Detailing Outcome of Excommunication Proceedings by Mormon Church

After Refusing to Protect LDS Children, Church Seeks to Silence Growing Grassroots Movement, Excommunicate Whistleblower

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – This Sunday, September 16th at 12:00 PM MT, Sam Young, an LDS Church Bishop and the founder of Protect LDS Children will hold a press conference detailing the outcome of his Excommunication proceedings from the Mormon Church. Church leaders delivered a verdict letter to Young’s business in Houston and at Sunday’s press conference, he will open and read aloud this verdict for the first time.

Young has been on a months-long campaign to raise awareness about the negative impact of sexually explicit one-on-one interviews that take place with Church officials and has drawn thousands of supporters to rallies in Salt Lake City. Despite all of his efforts to protect children and young people, Young was recently summoned to an Excommunication hearing in Houston by the Church in an effort to silence this growing grassroots movement.

Young’s efforts are especially timely as this movement has also come at the same time as new stories of past abuse and coverups by leaders have emerged within the Catholic Church as well. Just as the Catholic Church has publicly apologized and recognized the damage it has done, Young continues to implore the LDS Church to do the same.

WHO: Press Conference with Sam Young & Supporters

WHEN: Sunday, September 16, 12:00 PM MT

WHERE: South Temple across the street from Temple Square, Salt Lake City

The press conference will be livestreamed on Protect LDS Children’s Facebook page.

Background: Sam Young, founder of Protect LDS Children, has fought an uphill battle against the LDS Church to urge LDS Church leaders to end sexually explicit one-on-one interviews with children. Protect LDS Children has compiled a list of 29 actual questions that Bishops have asked young children in interviews, most of them too explicit to be read aloud in public, so Young and Protect LDS Children are asking the Apostles and Bishops of the Mormon Church to admit that even just one of these questions is out of bounds and inappropriate.

Petitions to Protect the Children have garnered over 58,000 signatures. Protect LDS Children also recently released a powerful new video outlining the range of sexually explicit questions that are allowed to be asked of children under current Church policy. Click here to watch.

Books containing the firsthand accounts of the damage done to hundreds of children as a result of this Church policy were also delivered to LDS Church leaders at a rally on March 30th. You can read over 800 stories of victims by clicking here.

Additional Background:

New LDS Church guidelines issued recently do not mandate a parent or guardian be present in any one-on-one “interviews” by male Church leaders, but rather, leave it up to the children to decide, and also do not address the issue of sexually-explicit questions and conversations This effort has gathered worldwide support, as more survivors and families have come forward to share their stories of how one-on-one “interviews” by LDS Bishops negatively impacted their self-esteem, self-worth, and emotional well-being. You can read the petition by clicking here.

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