Hi, I’m not a JW myself but I’ve been raised in a mostly JW family. My dad is disfellowshipped, but my parents are still together, and my grandparents and mum are JWs. I haven’t had the best experience with the organisation, though the individual people I’ve met have all been very friendly, and I have friends who are JWs. Personally, I believed it until I was 10 and fully understand how easy it is to believe what they say, since there is a lot of pressure to remain a Witness if you’ve been brought up as one.
As a young, trans, queer person with mental health issues, the rigidity of the system just isn’t for me. I find it very misogynistic and unaccepting, and baptism comes with a lot of pressure, as leaving is almost impossible after that point - at least, impossible without severe repercussions. The youngest I know to have been baptised was 10 at the time, which I think is honestly insane. Adults can do what they like, but getting a 10 year old to devote her life to God doesn’t seem right to me. I understand that she would’ve undergone a lot of checks to make sure she was ready and mature enough, but even so, she’s not even a teenager. She could completely change her mind in the years to come, and lose her family because of it.
I can understand why JWs are so faithful to their religion, but personally I just can’t believe it myself. I don’t have anything to say for or against them really, because they’re lovely individuals but I do think there are some aspects of the religion that are outdated and potentially somewhat corrupt.