You know what? people judge you, people do talk behind your back and hold you up to standards that they would never impose on themselves. Unless you are an extremely lucky man, you probably have only a handful of people that truly honestly love you deeply.

That may seem like a pessimistic and mean spirited thing to say. But, I say it to hopefully give you freedom. Please don't do the Mormon thing and try and navigate what is safe to say. How honest you can be and how much of yourself you can hide. Be yourself, be honest. The people that were in your life because it was an honor for them to be be "friends of the bishop, or related to the bishop" will fall away... and they would likely have fallen away if you were still tbm and just being released.

I am a shy and introverted person, and I have tried all my life to be accommodating, to help people out, to minimize anyone else's discomfort.

People actually admire someone that stands up and is honest. I have learned that a cantankerous personality is often more endearing than a submissive one.

I say you just be yourself, you say your a lawyer, surely you must be adept at confrontation and dialog. As a lawyer you must have to tell people fairly often they are not going to get what they want.

And thats with things in their lives, this is your life. I think you might be surprised who stands by you and who tells you that Satan has your soul. At the end of the day, I think you will be a much happier man if you just stand up and tell it like it is.