595: Elena Joy Thurston: Living Out Loud After Enduring Life Threatening Conversion Therapy

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Education, Management, How To, Business, Self-improvement

4.7 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2021

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational LGBTQ+ speaker, trainer, and founder of the nonprofit Pride and Joy Foundation. A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, Elena’s viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed 40,000+ times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, Logitech, Penn State, and Michael’s. Elena Joy recently launched Pride and Joy Publishing, the only publisher of solely LGBTQ+ empowerment and business books. I recently met Elena through a coaching program we are both in and I immediately knew I wanted to ask her to come on the show. She has an incredible story that she shares so generously. And her message is of the utmost importance. Listen in to hear Elena Joy share: Her journey through marriage in the Mormon church, to growing a family of 4 children, to realizing she had a built a life that was not true to who she was Her experience of coming out as a lesbian as a Mormon mom of 4 How Mormonism encouraged her to disconnect from her body How she was able to give up control over her body and actually step into her body How finding opportunities to be embodied led her to realizing her sexuality The fear of losing her children for eternity when coming out Her experience of going to conversion therapy to “fix” her attraction to women The intense gaslighting and traumatization of conversion therapy that her to suicidal thoughts How she was able to finally own her sexuality and move out of her home and marriage and into a new life as a gay woman Her advice and guidance to women who might be stuck in the closet Links mentioned: Join my free business training on November 18th Parents of LGBTQ+ Suicide Risk Awareness ALP Workshop on November 9th PrideandJoyFoundation AllyQuiz Linkedin: Elena Joy Thurston Instagram: Pride Joy Foundation Instagram: Elena Joy Speaks Facebook: PrideJoyFound Twitter: PrideJoyFound Queer Business Book Thank you to our sponsor: Thrive: Start thriving and help women in need today by going to Thrivecausemetics.com/shameless for 15% off your first purchase! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Shameless Mom Academy episode 595 with Elena Joy Thurston.
0:06.1	Show notes for this episode, including any links mentioned in the episode, can be found by going to shamelessmom.com and clicking on episode 595.
0:18.2	Welcome to the Shameless Mom Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Dean.
0:22.2	I'm here to give you and other passionate, driven, unapologetic moms, tools, resources,
0:27.7	and a little bit of humor to help you lead more positive, powerful, and purposeful lives every damn day.
0:34.2	One of the best things about the Shameless Mom Academy is our community.
0:37.2	So be sure to join us in our
0:38.4	free private Facebook group to connect with other shameless moms just like you. You can find us over
0:43.8	at shamelessom.com forward slash Facebook. All right, let's dive into today's episode.
0:53.9	This episode is brought to you by Thrive Cosmetics.
0:57.2	To save 15% off your first order, go to thrivecosmetics.com slash shameless.
1:03.0	That's ThriveC-A-U-S-C-A-U-S-C-Metics.com slash shameless.
1:10.2	Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational LGBTQ plus speaker, trainer, and founder of the
1:17.2	nonprofit Pride and Joy Foundation.
1:19.4	A Mormon mama four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a
1:24.1	lesbian, Elena's viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed
1:28.7	40,000 plus times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, Logitech, Penn State, and
1:37.7	Michaels. Elena Joy recently launched the Pride and Joy Publishing House, the only publisher of solely LGBTQ plus empowerment and business
1:47.0	books. I recently met Elena through a coaching program we were both in and we were on our first
1:51.6	Zoom call and within minutes I was messaging her like, hey, would you want to be on my podcast?
1:56.3	I just immediately knew that we could have a really powerful and important conversation.
2:01.7	And I'm so grateful that she said yes because she has an incredible story and she shares it so generously.
	...

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