‘It’s really about unconditional love’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
TONIA TEWELL
Founder of Holding Out Help, which supports
people that leave polygamous communities
Salt Lake City, Utah
There is no free choice in most polygamous communities. I didn’t grow up in polygamy, but what prepared me to run Holding Out Hope was my abusive childhood. At 12, I had total strangers take me in and raise me. They were religious but loved me without religious expectations, and that helped me understand the importance of not pushing your beliefs onto someone else. I learned quickly — by having people in my home who came from religious abuse — that if you bring up God and they sense an ulterior motive, they will run 100 mph in the other direction. You need to create a neutral safe place so they can figure out who they are and what they believe. It’s really about unconditional love. Where they came from, love will always have strings attached.
Lindsay D’Addato works as a freelance photographer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her work explores the complexities of the American West — both its beauty and its harshness.
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