Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began - Hardcover

Cooper, Alex; Brooks, Joanna

4.11

2,070 ratings by Goodreads

9780062374608: Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062374605 ISBN 13: 9780062374608

Publisher: HarperOne, 2016

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Joining the ranks of bestsellers by Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Lee Dugard, an inspiring, harrowing, and brave memoir by a young Mormon lesbian woman whose captivity and escape from an unlicensed "residential treatment program" resulted in a groundbreaking battle for LGBTQ rights that has impacted society and individual lives. Two days after Alex Cooper told her parents that she was gay, they took their 15-year-old daughter to Utah, where they signed over their parental rights to a group of fellow Mormons who promised to "cure" Alex from her homosexuality. For eight harrowing months, Alex was held captive in an unlicensed "residential treatment program," one of several "therapeutic" boot camps scattered across southern Utah: a virtual gulag where thousands of American teenagers have been sent by fundamentalist parents. Forbidden from attending school, Alex was beaten and verbally abused, and forced to stand facing a wall for up to 18 hours a day wearing a heavy backpack full of rocks that literally broke her back. "God's plan does not apply to gay people," her captors told her, using faith as a cudgel to punish and terrorize her. With the help of a dedicated legal team in Salt Lake City, Alex would eventually escape and make legal history in Utah by winning the right to live under the law's protection as an openly gay teenager. For the first time, Alex speaks out about her ordeal and its aftermath. Fixing Alex is a traumatic yet uplifting story of identity, faith, courage, acceptance, and freedom that reveals what happens when religion goes too far, and how a group of dedicated Americans and one young woman fought for her rights-and ultimately for us all.

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Review:

“Alex Cooper’s story is a call to action - we must put a stop to this brutal practice of conversion therapy and ensure that every child is embraced for who they are in their homes, schools and communities.” (Chad Griffin, President, Human Rights Campaign)

“Alex’s engrossing and shocking story is the triumph of courage, authenticity and hope over shame, bigotry and ignorance. The nightmare of Alex’s story is a key reason we will soon succeed in ending the cruel and dangerous practice of conversion therapy.” (Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights)

“In her new memoir, author Alex Cooper recounts her grisly experiences with reparative, or ‘gay conversion,’ therapy as a teen. Cooper’s book, Saving Alex, details the ‘exhausting and humiliating’ time she allegedly spent at a home in St. George, Utah.” (Huffington Post)

“Heart-wrenching, suspenseful. Alex’s hopeful story is a testament to the power of solidarity and compassion and a measure of how far our society has come. But it is also a chilling reminder that thousands in the U.S. are still subjected to deplorable conditions inside ‘gay conversion programs’ today” (BUST Magazine)

“In this deeply personal book, Alex Cooper recounts her teenage years undergoing conversion therapy after her parents, devout Mormons, discovered she was gay. The story is riveting.” (Mother Jones)

“Ripped-from-the-headlines books often seemed forced, but not here. Alex’s story is gripping as she comes across as a reliable witness against the cruelties of so-called reparative therapy. Because of her bravery, LGBTQ teenagers in Utah don’t have to undergo what Alex endured.” (The Bay Area Reporter)

“Saving Alex is a sobering reminder of the unresolved trauma still out there.” (Queerty)

“The suspenseful, well-written account of Alex’s eight months of ‘reparative’ therapy makes for compelling reading. Alex’s horrifying story is one that needs to be heard, and her book is an eloquent testament to that. It is encouraging proof that, as Alex is told, things do get better.” (Booklist (starred review))

“An affecting memoir. The positive ending to her story calls all readers to do more for vulnerable youth. Without offering any easy reconciliation between homosexuality and faith, Alex’s story provides an example of how to not be consumed by anger and hate toward an abusive version of religion.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A 21-year-old gay woman is telling the harrowing tale of abuse and humiliation she faced at the hands of gay conversion therapists in Utah in her book Saving Alex.” (Logo NewNowNext)

About the Author:

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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