One woman’s escape from Scientology
Church tried to ruin her when she came out as gay, book claims
Michelle LeClair was a teenager when she was introduced to the Church of Scientology. She had moved from Norman, Oklahoma, to Los Angeles where she felt adrift and alone, the perfect conditions, she said, for being recruited into what she now identifies as a cult with diminished power.
“Nobody cares what the Church of Scientology has to say anymore. They are like the little man behind the curtain who doesn’t have the strength and power he thought he had. Everyone is aware this is a cult that is built on lies,” LeClair said.
After more than two decades as a high-donor member of the church, LeClair, 45, said the organization sought to destroy her and her livelihood when she came out as a gay woman. The realization that she would not be accepted as her authentic self led to her defection in 2010. LeClair, who has lived in Atlanta since 2015 with her music-producer partner, Tena Clark, and LeClair’s children from a previous marriage, details her journey in a new memoir, Perfectly Clear (Berkley).
The Church of Scientology has rebutted LeClair’s account, noting in a statement to People magazine that she has not been involved with the church for a decade and that any financial undoing was of her own making. The church denied that it has any official position on homosexuality. “Instead of accepting responsibility for her actions, Ms. LeClair appears to be peddling fiction,” the church said. “We hope Ms. LeClair can someday find solace.”
LeClair wanted to share her story to expose the Church of Scientology and its treatment of gay people, said LeClair, who believes the church subjected her to gay conversion therapy as a teenager. “I tried to come out at 19 and that wasn’t happening. I had no status in the church. I was confused myself,” said LeClair, referring to the moment when she began “auditing” sessions with the Church of Scientology, a process the church says will help members achieve spiritual clarity and enlightenment.
Looking back, LeClair realizes she was a prime target for recruiting. After the move to Los Angeles, her mother worked long hours as a consultant for a management training firm run by Scientologists. The stepfather who had provided some stability in her life left when her mother fell deeper into the church. LeClair spent a lot of time alone. She began working at the same company where her mother worked and found the kind of success and acceptance she had never felt before.
Since its founding in 1954 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology has been controversial. The medical and scientific communities have long disputed Hubbard’s claims about mental health, science and religion. The organization has been involved in a number of lawsuits including some from former members claiming to have been mistreated by the church. Since Hubbard’s death in 1986, the organization has been run by his protégé, David Miscavige.
While the public faces of Scientology are major donors and celebrities such as actors Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Leah Remini, now an anti-Scientology activist, the organization preys on young, vulnerable and isolated individuals to work at the church, LeClair said. She fit the profile, but her confessions about her sexuality got her in trouble.
“When I tried to come out and the church told me it was wrong, it solidified my fear of who I was and I went back inside of my box and pushed down that side of me and allowed that to die,” she said. She had been ordered to read the teachings of Hubbard in Dianetics and Science of Survival.
“L. Ron Hubbard states clearly homosexuals are sexual deviants. They’re the lowest of the low,” LeClair said. “They can claim they do not have any stance on gay relationships but the Church of Scientology says we have to take what L. Ron Hubbard has written and said as pure truth.”
LeClair survived her rocky beginnings with the church and went on to marry, have children and build a successful career as founder of one of the largest female-owned life insurance companies in the U.S. But she felt stifled in a relationship that she described as abusive.
She and her ex-husband share four children — Sage, 17; Savannah, 12; and twins, Jadon and London, 11, who spend time with their father during holidays and summer vacation.
Sage has travelled with her to promote the book. “Over the years he has seen my truth and he is proud of me for coming out of it. He just recently said he wanted to read the book,” she said. But she didn’t want her view of his father to taint his relationship with his dad. “I have tried to teach them that love must guide them to truth and family must always be first, that they came into the world in a rocky way but they came as a gift from God to give me strength,” LeClair said.
LeClair has also found strength in her partner, Clark, with whom she began a relationship in 2010. At the time, LeClair was at the top of her game.
“I was one of the largest donors in the Church of Scientology. My business partner was Kirstie Alley. I had one of the largest woman-owned insurance agencies in the nation. I didn’t think I could get in trouble for anything with the church,” she said.
“When love truly touched me, it rocked every single element of my life and my being and I knew it was something I could not or would not walk away from,” she said. She tried to counter the church’s opposition by stating that she was in love with a being, not a body, and therefore it should be accepted. When the church asked about procreation, she offered that gay women can procreate and if they did not, why should they be judged differently from church members who chose not to marry or have children? “I thought everything was going to be OK,” LeClair said.
Though the church disputes her story, LeClair believes that after her relationship with Clark was made known, the church launched an investigation into her business and financial affairs that it laid out as a narrative for the State of California.
The California Department of Corporations sued LeClair and her business partner, Dror Soref, in 2012, accusing them of running a $21-million US Ponzi scheme from 2007 to 2010 that bilked seniors and others out of their savings. LeClair took a plea deal in return for testifying against Soref, whom she had met while they were both involved with the church.
In 2014, Soref reached a civil settlement with the state without admitting any wrongdoing. That same year, the Department of Insurance revoked LeClair’s insurance licence. Last year, criminal charges against LeClair were dropped.
Since moving to Atlanta, LeClair and Clark have worked to rebuild. LeClair has been building a nontoxic luxury beauty brand that will launch next year. Now that she is able to regain her insurance licence, she is also considering a return to the industry.
LeClair has dedicated proceeds from her book to a trust for her insurance clients. She said she hopes her story will help anyone who has struggled to be their authentic self, to walk out of an abusive relationship, to escape Scientology or to rebuild after failure. “I want people to know we have a choice,” she said.