From growing up in a cult to starring in cult classic lesbian films: Screenwriter Guinevere Turner
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Guinevere Turner was ready for the world to end on January 5, 1975. Just six years old, she was wearing a light blue dress with red flowers. Turner held a stuffed dog as she, along with other members of the Lyman family, waited for the arrival of a spaceship that would take them to Venus.
Turner, now 56 years old, is author of the book, When the World Didn’t End, which details her life growing up in the Lyman family. The Boston-based community of over 100 members was led by musician and writer Mel Lyman.
“I always knew I wanted to write about my childhood. I just, I was either scared or I would try and I wouldn’t like it,” said Turner.
Turner didn’t realize that she had grown up in what she now refers to as a “cult” until she was 22 years old and talking to a therapist.
“I was talking about it, and she said, ‘You know, I don’t think what you’re talking about is a commune. It’s a cult.’ And I was like, rude! Like, I really was not ready to hear that,” she said.
Ultimately, Turner came to the realization that she had grown up in a cult-like environment. The people in the Lyman family were required to listen to tapes made by Lyman. There was no contact with the outside world. Some of the young girls became child brides. And—among other restrictions— they could only watch films that were on what Lyman called “The Lord’s List.”
“I sat with it for a while, and then — but I never wanted to say the word “cult” to people when describing my childhood, because it’s almost like, then they would stop really listening and decide for themselves what it was. They would just be like, ‘ooh, cult.’”
Turner’s book features her journal entries written when she was a kid. She said this documenting was an effort to preserve what was happening to her.
“Nobody was really paying attention holistically to me, you know, what I mean? So I think some part of me instinctively was like, I’ll pay attention, you know? I will record this because no one else has the whole story,” said Turner.
The Lyman family eventually grew to multiple communities across the United States. Turner spent most of her young life with other children on a compound in Kansas.
Her mother ultimately left the family when Turner was 11, and soon after, Turner and her four-year-old sister were forced to leave with her. Turner was devastated. She’d been living away from her mom since she was three years old. Her mom seemed more like a stranger than the kids she’d grown up with.
“I lived in beautiful places, and I had close friendships and a lot of engagement with nature in a way that not all kids get. And having a sense of just being a pack of kids who had each other’s backs when we could,” she said.
Though Turner was now out of the Lyman family, she experienced most of her abuse while living in the outside world with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend.
She eventually went to college as a means to escape. And in 1994, she co-wrote her first film, Go Fish. It follows a group of young lesbian women in Chicago as they explore their romantic lives.
In the movie, Turner’s character doesn’t struggle with her sexuality or have a big “coming out” scene. Instead, she has struggles typical of any young person looking to date.
Content retrieved from: https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2024-08-15/from-growing-up-in-a-cult-to-starring-in-cult-classic-lesbian-films-screenwriter-guinevere-turner.
