Being a gay Jehovah’s Witness made Daniel feel like he ‘didn’t belong anywhere’ – ABC News

Growing up gay and within the Jehovah’s Witness community, Daniel Taunton says his life has been filled with isolation, sadness and trauma.

“You’re never treated like a normal human being,” Daniel says.

“Being LGBTQ [it feels like] you are on the lowest rung in society.”

The inner workings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation and its impact on many former members have been investigated by the ABC’s Four Corners program.

It revealed new details of a landmark civil case being brought against the group in Australia by former members for alleged child abuse.

Daniel walked away from the religious group when he was 18. While he was not sexually abused, he believes a greater light should be shone on what he claims is the organisation’s extreme treatment of LGBTQ people.

‘Didn’t belong anywhere’

The 52-year-old, who until recently lived on the NSW Central Coast, believes he was “marked” from the moment of his birth when he required a blood transfusion to survive.

Such a procedure is forbidden under the religious group’s doctrine and he says this traumatised his entire family.

“I was tainted. I was a marked kind of person,” he says.

Daniel recalls always being treated differently by the congregation, both because of his transfusion and his sexuality.

“You are really on the outer.

“For me as an obvious child who was more effeminate and pretty, at school I was bullied and then within the organisation. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere.”

He says members of the congregation would refer to homosexuals as “the devil” or “demons”.

“That was how homosexuals were always portrayed at the meetings and bible discussions, so being aware that you were gay, you really were odd.

“There were times when I was singled out by elders in the church and taken into a room and questioned about all that stuff.

“There had been complaints made about the way I dressed, the way I spoke.

At the age of 18 and suicidal, Daniel could take no more.

“I could not live a lie anymore. It was killing me and so I left.”

From ex-communication to international fashion

He says deciding to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses meant he could still have some family contact but their relationship was “limited”.

As a young ex-Witness, Daniel’s world opened up.

He became a fashion model in Europe, a graphic designer in New York and later settled in Melbourne where he ran his own interior decorating business.

He had a partner for a decade who was always referred to as his “housemate”.

In 2015, Daniel came home to “reset” his life and became a full-time carer for his parents.

Over those years, Daniel alleges his credibility and reputation was slowly destroyed by lies.

He says he lost all legal power over the care of his father after his mother died, was threatened and physically abused, and was wrongly accused of crimes against the organisation.

Tom Pecipajkovski, the Jehovah’s Witnesses national spokesman, says the organisation cannot verify Daniel’s claims but ” respects his view based on personal experience”.

Mr Pecipajkovski says Jehovah’s Witnesses “adhere to the bible’s high moral standards and avoid practices that displease God,” and members “agree to live by those standards when they make a conscious decision to get baptised”.

The ABC was told the organisation didn’t automatically shun anyone who breached the bible’s standards but would do so if the person was unwilling to change.

‘I feel freer’

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Daniel says in the past two years his life has turned around.

“I’m in the best place that I’ve ever been,” he says.

“I feel freer as a person because I’m not shackled to their standards anymore.

“I was in silence for 50 years. I think ultimately if you live a life based upon lies, eventually, you self-destruct.

Daniel’s main concern these days is knowing there are many others out there just like him, who continue to suffer.

“This type of behaviour has to be stopped.

“There are lots of young people, who are going through all that – right now.

“Being inundated with hate speech, told that they are filthy.

“That breaks my heart.”

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