Many people have been harmed and otherwise mistreated by The Satanic Temple over the years, especially those who once considered themselves members.

This is not just by the national organization in Salem, Mass., but by all of the local organizations set up to be part of the base for the pyramid structure that funnels power and money up with zero reciprocal obligations or accountability.

Unfortunately, the inherently destructive organizational structure regularly pushes away individual members and even whole local groups in schisms that facilitate an internal culture of ignorance and survivor bias where the abuse is constantly being newly discovered and continuity may as well not exist.

People feel isolated and think their experience is the exception rather than completely typical.

The following are collected accounts of some of the members of The Satanic Temple’s official Seattle chapter and an unofficial “Friends of TST” group that ultimately merged to become “The Satanic Temple – Washington State”. The temptation among some loyalists will be to assume that this is a situation particular to “TST’s longest continuous chapter”; and yes, some aspects are specific to the personalities and dynamics involved. But think of it another way: if any Temple chapter were to have solved the fundamental problems with TST, it would be Washington State née Seattle.

Instead, this is not even the most recent occasion for this dynamic to play out.

Jump to

• Randi
• Wylie
• Luci Furr
• Leslie
• Vox Dombek
• Lynne Cooney
• Aeryn Kylie Reed
• Derek Piersing
• “Yellow“
• Stian Kulystin
• Jesse Card
• “DEM“
• Michael Osiris Snuffin
• Luciana Lovecraft
• Lucy Rebel Heart

Randi

The Satanic Temple used this person to gather evidence that would later be used, misleadingly, in the ongoing legal campaign against us. At the time, this person didn’t know what TST was really like; now they know better, and of course the Temple has no use for them.

Being used and then disposed of is a path many ex-TST have walked before.

The second tragedy, of course, is how many people still remain in that organization, unaware of the extent to which they’re being groomed to follow that path as well.

Something has been bothering me for the last year in regards to everything that went down in the Washington Chapter of The Satanic Temple. Well, a lot of things really.

TST has never really provided context for why the Facebook page was taken over and what led to that happening.

What started everything was a former member made a complaint about TST WA. A group of people in leadership wanted to investigate the complaint further and some of the leadership thought it was either not necessary or that other people should be the one’s looking into it.

Why they didn’t want those people in particular to look into it I am not sure.

One of the members did look into it because they felt they were closer to the person who made the complaint and could more information.

They compiled everything they found and their thoughts of what actions TST could or should take and emailed this information out to all of their leadership contacts. So this email only went to leadership members, not the general members.

I was new to the leadership email and chat and I did NOT receive that email, but I did see the resulting chat.

The chat got very heated and the chapter heads turned off the chat and said they would figure this out soon.

The next day they removed everyone who received the email, except for maybe 2 people. I believe that was about a dozen members who had been in leadership roles that were suddenly removed without warning.

They held a meeting and said basically that they had removed the members but there wasn’t really a solid explanation as to why. Members kept asking in subsequent meetings but there was never a real answer.

At this point I was really not sure what should be done but I thought there was still a chance things could be fixed, maybe worked out with those members removed and added back in.

At this point is when the Facebook page was taken over. A member who had been removed still had admin access and so they removed all the other admins and took over the page.

When they took over the page they posted a lot of links to stories about bad stuff in Lucien’s past and bad experiences of former members. As far as I read some of the things were subjective but all of them were real. Nothing they posted was a lie.

I was mad that the chapter was going down in flames from the page having these posts on it and I still was really in the mindset of wanting to be in TST. I really wanted to belong to a group of morally conscious satanists.

I stuck with TST and I even provided them with the screenshot they have reposted of one of the defendants saying they stole the webpage from TST.

I was upset about the page been taken over and I am still not saying that was the right move.

I do understand what led to them doing it, and so far I haven’t seen anyone else say how it happened.

I was told by leadership that they were going to talk about what the mistakes they made that lead to this and I waited for that to happen for a few months.

By the time 3 or so months had passed we had new members who hadn’t been present at the fall-out. It was eating away at me that I didn’t feel the leadership was living up to the tenets, and so I left.

When I left the new members contacted me saying they felt like something was off and told me that they were told that the group of people that were removed( and now being sued by TST) were kicked out because they were violent ANTIFA members.

During the time of those members coming in there was a lot of talk in the group about how TST is not ANTIFA and just general misunderstanding about what ANTIFA means and now it makes sense as to why that kept coming up.

I do not have any friendships with the people who are being sued. I still have several friends in TST, some of who I may lose due to this. My friends never really saw the behind-the-scenes of what happened just the Official story from TST and so I doubt they agree with me.

Source: @SnailWhisperer on Twitter.com

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Wylie

Here is context from another former TST Washington member who was also kicked out when we were and present for Lupercalia fallout.

I’m one of the people referenced in this thread and I have to admit and apologize, but I don’t remember you. I will say there’s about a week of time missing, however, between the email about the former member’s complaint and our removal.

After that email, which I composed with the help from one or two folks in leadership (one of which was removed with me), I was bullied relentlessly, which ended up digging up instances of ableism, transphobia, and fatphobia which had been used against me in TST for years.

Admittedly I didn’t act my best, but I had filed formal complaints before and been gaslit about them existing by leadership both local and in other chapters. I filed another formal complaint against someone in leadership who was leading the bullying. I CC’d people in leadership as witnesses due to the very gaslighting of former complaints and leadership claiming my complaints never happened. It was then that everyone CC’d on the email (except one, mentioned above 2nd reply) AND their partners and myself were removed without warning.

A few of the folks had no idea they had even been kicked out. All of us discovered it. No one told us. I wasn’t involved in [the Facebook page incident], but it’s awfully convenient no witnesses of the complaint remained but one, and they quit too almost immediately.

Now, it’s just speculation, but the person who wasn’t kicked out had a home, storage space, vehicles and skills that the chapter used, even then. They expressed at least once they thought the only reason they were spared was due to these resources. But it’s speculation.

This person still had donations that had yet to be distributed in storage. They tried multiple times to get folks to distribute them, to no avail. It’s almost as if TST didn’t actually care about distributing donations they had collected. They ended up distributing on their own.

And remember, this person was NOT kicked out. Even though they played a more active role than some who were. They ended up leaving because of all this. I heard the lies told about everything in that first zoom call and it was just… incredible. The lengths gone to.

But yeah, once the witnesses were gone, they could say whatever they wanted, couldn’t they? And there was no one left to correct them or say any different. Woman shrugging And anyone who thought about it might have felt like they’d be next.”

Source: “Wylie” on Twitter.com

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Leslie

The host of The Satanicc Temple Washington’s 2020 Lupercalia party, Leslie a.k.a. “Crimson”, admitted she didn’t know about BDSM scene at her place till people showed up, and it all felt a bit icky.

But mainly, it was the national Satanic Temple leadership’s alt-right ties at issue.

Leah “Siri Sanguine” Garvais was then-Washington chapterhead though since moving on to Utah.

Leslie [Surname]
I left because – all of that, and the alt right leaders and their representatives. Not because people didn’t clean up after themselves at my place. Luciana Lovecraft Oh I know, Leslie that’s just how it was portrayed to members. That it had to do w/ the cleaning and the prior incident. (which I would definitely understand) We got blamed, shamed and yelled at for the cleaning bit, but probably just as a way to distract from the actual reason you left–and absolve TST-WA of any blame/bad press.

Wylie [Surname]
@Leslie we were definitely told you left because people didn’t clean up at the party. Wylie they asked for my input during the meeting about people not cleaning up, I guess they wanted us to justify ourselves? And I was like… I wasn’t at the party. They really did frame it that you left because of that and that we all needed to apologize for losing them a place to party.

Leslie
@Wylie Frankly I wasn’t that comfortable with the whipping[.] Well they lied

Wylie
I hosted numerous parties at my place back before I left the last time and aside from some nudity and tying pentagram rope harnesses, there was never any whipping or BDSM impact play at my place. I wonder if that’s because membership is different or what… but yeah having BDSM on site at a party should be discussed with the host. And I do remember they repeatedly told us they were going to have it during the party at your place. I didn’t go because I had to work and also I didn’t feel comfortable going back to social events just yet. Also all the focus on sex put me off because I’m asexual. I just found where you actually announced you left and they led us to believe you left way before that.

Leslie
@Wylie They did tell me it would be there. But when it actually was there, and they talked about other chapters having full blown orgies, I just felt a little icky. Siri was there. She didn’t clean up either.

Source: Leslie post and conversation on Facebook.com

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Luci Furr

The Satanic Temple’s Washington State chapter switched from being a consensus-based group with distributed leadership committees to one that claimed just two local managers controlled membership and unilaterally purged people as they saw fit.

Unsurprisingly, this led many more to leave.

For a little bit of background, much like an airport you really did have to announce your departure from The Satanic Temple’s Washington State chapter because otherwise they would continue to count you on their rolls.

The Satanic Temple also had a tendency to keep using images of ex-members to promote the chapter and make it appear larger/more active than it was, long after those ex-members had left due to sexual harassment or other bad terms—and after being told this was offensive and unwanted.

Unless more internal communications leak, we may never know for sure, but TST Washington may have shut down their Discord solely because members could talk with each other and compare notes (read: lies) from leadership more easily.

Member Luci Furr explains their exit in March 2020.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce my departure from the Satanic Temple of Washington. There is no accountability for leadership, and those who question anything are booted from the ranks. Membership will remain a revolving door as people enter, get abused, and either leave of their own accord or get ousted. There is a gross lack of transparency in the decision making process of those in charge, which leaves members scratching their heads wondering what happened. This allows them to fabricate their own reality and gaslight those left behind. Kicking members out like this is shady at best and looks more like a cover up than anything else as these former members cannot even speak their side of the story as their names are slandered. The decision to leave was not made lightly and I am proud of what was accomplished during my membership, however until the organizational structure changes, nothing will change. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

You do not have my permission to use my likeness in any way, shape, or form.

Ave Satanas.

Source: Discord chat, Luci Furr

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Vox Dombek

I already made a post about why I left The Satanic Temple, but it was too polite and at this point I’m not sure that anyone on my friends list particularly cares anymore. But they continue to be garbage human beings, so I’m going to rant a bit further.

The image below? Well, I had designed the new official logo of the chapter when it changed from TST Seattle to TST Washington State this past January 1st. It was an okay logo, and I’m not even attached to it – but in their continuing incompetence they never got the rights signed over to that artwork. I’ve learned more and more heinous things about the chapter leadership since leaving, and decided that I would rescind allowing them to use my artwork any further. They apparently got wind of this and sent an email out to the chapter announcing that just 4 months after unveiling my new logo they would have another logo contest because “multiple people felt that the logo was not representative of the chapter.” A preposterous excuse, since my logo was chosen by popular vote. Why not just be straightforward, and say something simple like, “our logo was designed by a former member who no longer wants us to use it/is no longer on good terms with us/we never actually got the rights to use this as our official logo”? Transparency has never been TST’s strong suit. So, since they’re in such terrible need of a new logo that better represents them, here you go! It’s all yours.

“Accessibility is too much work!” There are so, so many instances of TST being unwilling to do the work needed to make its chapter accessible to all. From their primary meeting location that doesn’t even meet ADA requirements and requires walking down a narrow, rickety set of stairs to a dimly-lit basement, to requiring members to be able to physically make it to a set number of meetings per year, to requiring prospective members to meet in person… each step of being a member is under this expectation that you are physically able to walk and stand and sit for things, that you’re financially capable of driving or taking the bus to events, or that your work-life balance alone even allows you the free time they expect you to devote to them. I tried hard to push for accessibility throughout my time at TST and had some small success but was largely met with opposition and the claim that it was “too much work.” A breaking point just prior to me leaving was when a member requested transcripts of our zoom meetings. Another member spoke up to say that they had experience transcribing and were willing to volunteer their time to do so. Seems simple, no? Apparently not – this was too much of a “security issue” in that the scary people outside of the chapter could get access to the transcripts if they were leaked and would use them against TST. Never mind that a zoom meeting could easily be shared with screen capture software, with a shitty phone video recording, or any number of simple enough workarounds. No, instead they settled on telling members that if they wanted transcripts so badly they could use Google’s text-to-speech AI, disregarding my pleas that this is not comparable to a human transcribing, or that we shouldn’t put the burden of accommodations on the people requesting them, or that our members might not even be technologically savvy enough to use text-to-speech to begin with! Leadership just couldn’t be bothered with making the effort to be accommodating, even when we had a member volunteering to do it all for them.

My promotion to the chapter’s newest rendition of the Strategy Council (a group of folks who have absolutely no real power but allegedly are advisory to the chapter heads) was announced to the chapter during a zoom meeting “that way we have some diversity,” since I was nothing more than a trans token to them. There were apparently many pretty intense instances of transphobia (detailed in the posts linked below) before I was a member, but even as a member I noticed that getting some members of leadership to remember nonbinary members’ pronouns (especially members who have not undergone HRT) was like pulling fucking nails.

“$$$$” As wisely described by a friend involved in all of this nonsense, TST is a religion-not-a-business when convenient, and a business-not-a-religion when convenient. When I joined TST it was full of good people with good ideas about how to use our religion status for good things. We participated in Paint Tacoma Beautiful, we did park cleanups, and there were grand plans for direct action and community aid. The people behind these noble actions were all kicked out or left, and the chapter no longer had any interest in continuing their work. For my part, I was in charge of the chapter’s queer/Pride-related actions. If everything had gone as planned and the plague weren’t a thing, I’d be deep in Pride-planning meetings and spending every spare second on preparing for the chapter’s participation in pride events throughout the state. For the majority of my time in charge of this, I was the only one making these plans as my co-leader (who I’ve since learned is a TERF) never provided any ideas or input. I was pressured /constantly/ by the now co-chapter head Barret to find ways to capitalize off of Pride and use these events to raise funds for the chapter. I wanted TST to do more to help the queer community we were preying upon – clothing drives for trans folks, legal aid for name and gender marker changes, using our religious status to fight against conversion therapy, etc. I’m sad to say that with my departure there is absolutely no chance of TST doing anything concretely helpful to the queer community (though they claim their mere presence at pride events is “supportive” while they rack up money off merchandise), with the chapter being led by a man that’s overly zealous about all the ways he can raise money under TST and the chapter’s pride events being placed once again in the hands of a TERF that doesn’t care much for direct action.

As I remained in the chapter post-schism hoping to fix what I could, I witnessed leadership talk about members and former members as though they were employees that had been fired or quit. A member quitting that had provided her beautiful home for parties was regarded as a huge loss; newer members who were quite reasonably alarmed by Lucien Greave’s alt-right associations and the chapter leadership’s opaqueness were hardly mentioned or dismissed as “they didn’t contribute much anyway.” A member’s worth was always, /ALWAYS/ linked to how much of an asset they were to the chapter, never to how good of a person they were or how we should have regarded each other as friends or even family. When I brought this up in a leadership meeting that I didn’t like how people were being reduced to their “usefulness,” Angel rolled her eyes and said “well, we’re not going to go around giving everyone a participation trophy!”

“Democratic to a point.” A phrase frequently used by leadership to explain why they had ultimate, indisputable power over how the chapter acted and why transparency could not exist. Nathan gets into this in much better detail in his post linked below.

“shhh.” Dissent must be silenced! Sweet satan is this one of their go-to moves. Again, this is something my comrades linked below speak on much better than I could. The lawsuit they have filed against dissenters is largely intended to silence them and burden them with the financial stress of legal fees and intimidate anyone else who would otherwise consider speaking out against TST. A facebook group created for former members to foster a safe space for them to process their experiences together and put together the pieces of the puzzle that show just how corrupt this organization is was just described as a “hate group” by chapter leadership Tarkus. Literally linked to the wikipedia article for “hate group,” apparently seeing no difference between people discussing the chapter’s history of harming members and literal nazis (which, again, is something more in TST founder Lucien’s arena.) They are also claiming in their lawsuit that this group of former members is competing against TST (???), once again begging the question is TST a religion or a business? Not to mention that when Lucien Greaves heard that the defendants are trying to crowdfund legal fees, he directed his followers and lackeys to try to mass report the GoFundMe campaign despite its legitimacy.

On a personal note, when chapter leadership learned that I had joined the ～d i s s e n t～, I was messaged by chapter head Barret, who among other things called me a “common coward” for betraying the chapter. He also did a really neato cool thing of making fun of my mental health – in past conversations, he would often follow a message with “you don’t have to respond,” understanding that I struggle hardcore with anxiety and the feeling of obligation to respond to messages sends my anxiety through the roof. So yes, he finished this last conversation with, “You don’t have to respond, just know that you’re the loser here.” Thanks, friend!

“lickin’ boots” Pretty straightforward, but there’s a great deal more detail on this in all of the posts but especially in ADJ’s under the former chapter page.

This is all to say, the local chapter is a flaming dumpster fire, and you’re best off steering clear.

Source: Vox Dombek post on Facebook.com (May 18, 2020), mirrored on Twitter

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Lynne Cooney

I just withdrew my membership request:

I doubt that this will have much impact, but I hereby withdraw my membership request. Maybe TST will grow into an organization I would like to be a part of, but I can’t be associated at this point.

The first alarm was the suggested response to being asked a yes or no question “Did Lucien Greaves illustrate a publication of ‘Might is Right?” Since there is a suggested response, we know the answer isn’t “no.” This is a simple one for TST: “Yes, and I don’t agree with it now.” Simple. But, no, we have to change the subject instead. It is very easy to find the fact that he did this on the web. It is possible, but much harder, to find him responding that he does not agree with it now. It should be easy to find an apology for this, especially for an organization that claims to be inclusive. I realize that a lot of chapters left over this. WA should have. It’s not a good look.

I’ve given Angel some time to think about her tone-policing suggestion that we do things the way she learned in the military: through the chain of command and with a SOLUTION. Also really not a good look.

I submitted three membership requests (two have been found) spanning at least two years. I finally got a response by going nuclear and publicly sharing a TST post crowing about how many members and allies they have with comments about my frustration trying to join. I had nothing to lose at that point — TST WA (then Seattle) was already ignoring me. No one knows why I was ignored and it is still frankly insulting to learn that people who applied at the same time I did WERE called back. Yes, Tarkus was apologetic, and probably sincere. But my nuclear post did get noticed. I have since met others who were frustrated by no response to their requests for an interview.

And finally, if IC really thinks that posts about trans rights and ableism are not related to our mission, well, see paragraph two above. That would track with the refusal to address the “Might is Right” involvement. Not a good look.

I’ve been looking for activists because most atheist groups are not doing much. I thought TST was that group. It isn’t, at this point. Perhaps WA leadership will consider this fallout. I hope so.

Source: Lynn Cooney in private group post on Facebook.com (March 17, 2020), mirrored on Twitter.com

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Aeryn Kylie Reed

Alright, so I’ve been procrastinating on making this post for awhile now, but here goes. Long post ahead. Feel free to share.

I’m sure some of you may have noticed a GoFundMe I’ve been sharing to help raise funds for four people getting sued by the Satanic Temple. Well, in case you didn’t figure it out, I left the Temple back in March.

Why? Well, there was a lot of weird and shady stuff happening right when the several people were removed from the Temple, including a member who had a huge part in helping the Washington chapter grow in the early days.

The reason our local leadership originally gave for their removal was for forming a “coalition” against leadership. What proof did leadership have? All the people were CC’d on an email, as witnesses, filing a formal complaint against someone higher up in the local chapter, aside from the one member who was kicked out for being married to someone who was CC’d on an email. The only member they didn’t immediately kick out for being CC’d was a member who had provided space and rare talents for the chapter, even though he was a partner of someone who was CC’d as well. The person who sent the complaint email in had asked other members to be witnesses on it as the person they were filing a complaint about had a tendency to brush things under the rug and gaslight the hell out of them. Since then, leadership has changed their reasoning for removing the specific people to other reasons that were a bit more vague.

When I left the Temple, I wrote a post detailing my issues with the Temple in a departure post in the TST-WA Facebook group. I got to see the response from members via another person, as I had already left the group. The one that stuck out to me the most was from chapter higher up Tarkus Claypool (who blocked me right after I shared the GoFundMe the first time). He responded to all my issues by completely missing the point on all of them, which for someone of his intellect (and his tendency to manipulate, as I’ve learned about since leaving) definitely seems like he purposefully did that.

One of my points I had made was how I formal complaint I had personally filed in the past for transphobia was handled much differently than someone’s who had been filed for the same person for the same reason as mine. My complaint was handled in a decent manner, talking to the local leadership council at the time and never having to confront the person my complaint was about. My friend who filed the complaint before was forced to have a meeting with council members, including the person their complaint was about. Tarkus’ response to my issue about that was that I was pleased with how it was handled, which isn’t false, but misses the point in how it was handled with someone else with the same complaint. Said person did do repeat offenses (their transphobia was esp aimed at non-binary people and non-binary pronouns) and leadership didn’t do anything. That person has also been put on the new leadership council. The main difference between me and my friend who made the complaint was that I was binary while my friend was non-binary.

Transphobia is somewhat common by certain higher ranking members in the chapter. During a meeting, we did pronouns as an icebreaker and the person I had complained about (complaint occurred after this and the incident was included in it) made a big show about how they didn’t need to say their pronouns. Another higher up member in the chapter made the comment that the only way to be more sure of her pronouns was for her to open her legs. She has stated in the chapter that she never said that, but several ex-members, along with me, remember this quite vividly. She also refused to listen to any comments about transphobia unless you stated it in a VERY specific tone. Biggest example was the issue over language for Menstratin’ With Satan posters. It was really trans-exclusive and she threw a hissy fit when the the artwork and language were changed by others to make it more inclusive.

Since leaving, I’ve learned there’s been a lot of covered up stuff from other ex-members. There was a meeting where members were chewed out for causing a member with a hosting space to leave by not cleaning up after a party (which the chapter head was there and didn’t take part either and no clean-up crew was even really signed up). Ends up, that member left for reasons other than that, like the fact that Lucien Greaves (the top dog of TST as a whole) associates with alt-right people. There are tons other things that were covered up within the chapter that makes me extremely disappointed.

I’m disappointed in the whole org, to be honest. When I joined the Temple, I did so believing in the message of separation of Church and State and agreed with their tenets (which I still find as good policy). In the end, they didn’t even live up to their own tenets except when it benefited them to do so. It would appear that TST is no different from so many other religions, esp various flavors of Christianity. I thought I could help fix things by staying in, but it’s definitely a trap to completely drain you. There is no fixing it, esp when the issues come all levels of the org. There is so much more I could get into about this, but I think this post is long enough. If I can coherently put thoughts into text, I’ll probably add it via comments.

One last thought, though. EXTRA SHAME on The Satanic Temple for suing ex-members for a BS thing DURING A GODDAMN PANDEMIC where people are struggling with jobs/income. I sincerely hope this lawsuit shows the Temple’s true colors in the end.

TL;DR: The Satanic Temple is not the progressive org it claims to be.

Source: Aeryn Kylie Reed, public post on Facebook.com (May 12, 2020)

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Derek Piersing

Former leader of South Sound Satanists Derek Piersing talks about his experience getting pushed out after doing the work building a “Friends of” group for The Satanic Temple in the metro area south of Seattle (Olympia to Tacoma, Wash.)

In November 2019, Piersing—who had been “Acting Co-Chapter Head”—was informed that his leadership style didn’t mesh with that of official Chapter Head Leah Garvais (“Siri Sanguine”).

herefore, “Siri” (who governs for-profit corp Infernal Washington LLC d/b/a “TST WA” as Leah Garvais) removed Piersing from the position and then expelled Piersing after he shared her email to him with the rest of local chapter.

Paul Case, former President of the Seattle Skeptics, uses “Tarkus Claypool” in his capacity as Media Liaison of TST Washington

In a town hall—but w/o Piersing present—Case & Garvais accused him a pattern of bullying to explain to local members why they “pulled rank” to expel him

That led to most folk who’d been part of the “South Sound Satanists” group with Piersing to stop participating entirely

TST Seattle, which was an official chapter, still absorbed the rump of South Sound to form “The Satanic Temple – Washington State Chapter”.

(The 3S FB page also came with, you’ll notice — briefly.)

Green & Yellow will still be obvious to those involved but we redacted names based on their wishes & The Satanic Temple’s treatment of them In contrast, when you have power over others & wield it to hurt them, you should lose that privilege

This is all rough and I have no idea what the appropriate [content warning] tags are but a long piece covering rough topics.

This still hurts to talk about but I’ve been told by several people that it would be better for me to talk about my removal both from leadership and from TST. Please consider this an AMA and I will answer any question I can.

When asked about my removal it is important to include a number of people who may or may not have the spoons to talk about it. [Green] Nathan Von Sullivan [and Yellow] have spoken about parts of it, anyone else who wants to add or contest parts should because first and foremost we need as much transparency as we can have these days.

As good a place to start, the accusation of my use of transparency as a weapon. The thing is, transparency only hurts you if you’re hiding something you shouldn’t be doing which is why imo leadership gets no complete secrecy. I was accused of using transparency to embarrass Siri by posting her direct arguments as to my removal. But if you don’t say anything embarrassing and someone posts what you said you have nothing to be embarrassed about, right?

My favorite accusation is that I have a problem with authority. First, as a Satanist who’s primary figure, either literal or literary, is renowned for flipping god off and giving humanity knowledge because he thought gods authority was arbitrary, shouldn’t we all have a problem with authority that is found to be arbitrary? Second, my particular case is I don’t toe the line and lie to protect the party image and as many have noticed saving face is of utmost importance to TST as a whole. This ties back to the transparency and why transparency is important.

All together the story makes the most sense starting at the beginning, but it is hard to point to the start. I would say the beginning of open hostility was an email airing grievances that was blunt to the point of mean about the state of leadership at the time. In short the council consisted of 7 members; Lilith, Tarkus, Pockets, Nathan, [Green], Vapula, and Siri. Almost all of them there because they were “founding members” and that was the justification for their authority. [Green], Nathan, [Yellow], and Myself used the conversation following the aforementioned email to try to call for a more democratic process to choose leadership. We had all had concerns ourselves as well as voiced to us by other chapter members about the fact that leadership chose leadership and are only accountable to higher leadership. That is also the universal process from IC (at the time NC) on down. The immediate fallout landed mostly on [Green] as can be read in her post. Tarkus emailed me until around 3am to convince me [Green] was trying to turn me against the council with false information and that [Yellow] was asking for recognition she was given. When I explained what [Yellow] was saying it was dismissed as “splitting hairs”. After that he focused fire on [Green] to try and have her removed because she took full responsibility for the email and so was the only one he could address immediately as having done something wrong. After [Green] he focused on me and [Yellow] . He started with petty harassment by doing things like telling [Yellow] his miniature paint job he had commissioned from her was out of pity over our financial struggle due to my cancer. He also continued trying to drive us apart from [Green] by telling us it was her fault he stopped talking to us.

I spoke with Siri and Nathan about Tarkus’ ongoing behavior and was told that it looked “uber manipulative” but Siri assured me Tarkus wasn’t a member of leadership so it didn’t matter, so I dropped it for a while.

This came up again with Angel where she attacked the reorganization. During the conversation I mentioned something I had been told about Tarkus to Angel, that he claimed our group needed to be brought under control. Angel snapped to his defense saying she bet [Green] was the one to say that about him and denying it was said by Tarkus. What I didn’t tell Angel was Siri was the one who said it at the council meeting where we reorganized. At the time Angel tried to drive a wedge in again when [Green] was helping me get a job which made it extra laughable that she would try to say [Green] was trying to be malicious again.

Then it came up again because some of the things I saw Tarkus doing looked like he was trying to make the guild system fail and I talked to a number of people about investigating Tarkus so it could be impartial but was advised to wait as ‘Tarkus wasn’t a threat because he wasn’t in a position of authority’.

When Siri told me she was removing me from co-chapterhead and I saw she included Tarkus in the email I knew I had been played. When Tarkus told me he was an authority and I had to respect his leadership after months of being told he was a non participant I first verified it with Siri and when she backed him up I knew I was going to be removed. Taken as a plan from beginning to end it all fits that from my invitation to be co chapter head to my removal was a planned process.

In the process of my removal Tarkus attempted to remove me from communications, the problem being he wasn’t in all of them so he missed several. Knowing they wanted me removed I made small statements along the lines of ‘good morning’ in those chats that were missed so they could rectify their oversight. They proceeded to remove me from those chats and then proceeded to punish [Yellow] by stripping her of her admin rights even though she hadn’t done anything.

The main reason I haven’t said anything before now is what can I say about being “borderline abusive”? I can’t ignore it because if I was it has to be addressed, but I was denied evidence and the right to defend myself so I don’t even know what behavior they feel falls under that definition.

When Nathan told me they had basically been kicked for being CC’d on an email, and what the content of the email was, I immediately thought about the meeting where Nathan attacked leadership along with the rest of us and this looks like the exact same behavior from TST happening yet again. Exactly what we called for and said needed to stop happening.

None of this changes that I did make mistakes, and for that I apologize to everyone hurt by my actions. I am often blunt and I struggle with compassionate honesty as opposed to brutal honesty and I realize this tends to make me not very diplomatic.

Now here we are. Please ask anything you want, I’m an open book for anyone.

Source: Derek Piersing in private group post on Facebook.com (March 17, 2020), mirror on Twitter.com

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“Yellow”

Yellow, Derek Piersing’s partner, adding her perspective of the conflict, including the reason she had joined The Satanic Temple: she wanted to volunteer and teach an After School Satan club following the launch of the first (and for five more years, only) such club for TST

Yellow, who is easily identifiable by people involved but also does not wish to have TST’s shitstorm fall on her, might be disregarded as being biased due to her relationship with her partner.

But why do her complaints line up with so many other people’s?

So, I need to add my part to the story, especially since the whole Lilith issue had about as much to do with Derek as his disposal had to do with me. Here goes.

I legitimately had nothing to do with the whole leadership/Derek issue that ended our tenure in TST, but I need to add my part of the story because Derek got blamed for some stuff that technically was about me.

The short story is, I complained about the lack of communication or cooperation from the Strategy Council to [Green], who took it to the SC and it was labeled as a personal attack on the council members, including Lilith. When Derek found out he had cancer we reached out for help and they said they would give us anything we needed, but then when we asked them to run meetings they said they couldn’t and when we asked them to run just one meeting they still had far more important things than keeping part of their organisation running. This was the breaking point and I vented a lot. The term I kept coming back to was ‘Little Red Hen’ (as in the children’s story). This went back further, though, all the way to the entire reason I joined the damned cult in the first place.

The only reason I joined TST was for the After School Satan Club. The first year Derek and I were both students and we couldn’t make it to Point Defiance to participate, but we were told it was a huge success and I was so happy. That summer we moved to Tacoma (for unrelated reasons) and I told Lilith I wanted to enroll our son and be a teacher in the program, which she was enthusiastic about. As the school year approached, though, I didn’t hear anything else. I tried to talk to her about what I needed to enroll our son, and what I needed to do to be able to teach and always she said ‘we’ll get back to you’. So I waited, and heard nothing, until the mass email saying the program was canceled. I was frustrated because we had a student (my son) and the year before we had only had one, we had volunteers, including myself and a few others thanked in the email, so what had happened? No answer, no explanation, nothing except my name on a list in a mass email.

So when the council offered but then refused to give any assistance I was done. I had stayed because there was a chance at ASSC the next year and because we started South Sound and were doing pretty well despite the hell that was cancer eating our personal lives. [Green] took those complaints to the SC, because they were serious concerns about the lack of communication between the SC and the members, including lesser complaints like the fact they wouldn’t tell members what actions they were working on so it felt like we weren’t doing anything even though they assured us things were going on behind the scenes. We were asking for communication, and we didn’t feel like that was too much to ask.

Well, it was. From the beginning of the meeting they attacked us for demanding too much of them for wanting people to lead our meetings, after all they were all volunteers. Sob stories about how much they sacrificed to make things work on other occasions, accusations that we were calling them lazy (which we didn’t), and Tarkus insisting all I was doing was trying to get attention and praise for wanting to do ASSC. I told them repeatedly that what I was mad about was the lack of communication for months only to get tagged in a mass email. There was no explanation of what they needed to make it work, no replies when I asked repeatedly what needed to be done to make it work, just a side note on a mass email. As Derek said, Tarkus wouldn’t let it go, harassing and belittling South Sound as a group and us as individuals.

Shortly after Lilith stepped down. Was our meeting part of the reason? Probably. Did either of us attack her personally? No. My issue wasn’t with Lilith specifically, one of the things I brought up was that no one knew who to go to so everyone took everything to Lilith which was unfair to her and was way too much for any one person. Again, communication.

And that’s it. That’s how we attacked Lilith and ostracized Tarkus. By voicing a legitimate complaint.

Source: Yellow in private group post on Facebook.com (March 17, 2020), mirror on Twitter.com

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Stian Kulystin

Stian Kulystin, another relatively new member of The Satanic Temple’s Washington State chapter in March 2020, describes the disconnect between the sort of group they thought they were joining versus how its local leadership acted in practice.

He came into The Satanic Temple on the idea it was one thing but found out it behaved very differently from its marketing in practice after the mass expulsion of numerous members and no accountability from local leaders.

As someone who was relatively new to the WA TST chapter at the time, and without any strong personal ties to either the people who were removed or leadership at the time, I remember the confusion surrounding the removal of so many guild leaders and how nobody seemed to know anything. I attended the “emergency meeting” The chapter heads called to explain matters, and I was quite honestly shocked at the way things were portrayed and how leadership explained themselves. The way they tried to enforce a military style “chain of command” and refused to accept any real fault or responsibility made it very clear tgis was not an organization I wanted to be part of.

Source: Stian Kulystin, Facebook comment (unknown date), mirror posted on Twitter.com

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Jesse Card

Jesse Card was a member of The Satanic Temple’s Washington State chapter unti—as a favor—Card shared with the local group the announcement of another former member regarding why that person, who had been a member for many years, had decided to leave.

Card was then expelled.

Between sending the email to getting booted for six months (which turned into a permanent ban), all of two hours passed.

First, chapter head “Siri Sanguine” (Leah Garvais) answers, fairly pleasantly but still negatively regarding the transparency of a member giving their reasons for leaving

We are working our butts off trying to repair our chapter and shit-stirring is unwelcome right now

However The Satanic Temple – Washington State’s Media Liaison “Tarkus Claypool” (Paul Case) chose a slightly more… aggressive tone in response.

This is like drunk texting your ex at 3am

“Evergreen State Satanists” was a Facebook group and Discord server of some ex-TST Seattle/Washington and South Sound Satanists members either expelled or who’d left over the years, Here, Paul Case abbreviates it to “Evergreen SS” and links to the Wikipedia page for “Hate Group“.

“Harassing” also is an interesting allegation for Paul Case to make given that the national Satanic Temple organization had, with the help of the local chapter, already begun its ongoing SLAPP lawsuit against four of the previously expelled local members

It’s not clear what the allegation of “hate group” is based on, any more than the “anarchist utopia”—but then it doesn’t have to be clear

Paul Case is in control of who gets to be a member of The Satanic Temple’s local chapter, not Card.

Power is not needing to explain yourself

With all of that context,

Jesse Card replies, explaining that he did not expect sharing the words of a long-time and active TST member to cause such trouble.

(We’ll see if we can get that posted as well so folk can judge for themselves.)

TST Washington Media Liaison Tarkus Claypool/Paul Case regards then-mere TST Washington member Jesse Card’s explanation to be” “Sealioning”

So, there you go.

(If this is not accurate, other people should have been in that Google group list and be able to correct us.)

The Satanic Temple Washington’s “strategy council” then met and less than an hour later, Sanguine (Leah Garvais), Barret Daniel, and Claypool (Paul Case) and determined that Jesse Card’s violation was enough to warrant Card being suspended for six (6) months.

To focus on the last part, no, this isn’t exactly a Jehovah’s Witness shunning, but this is the whole due-process you get

Three people get together, decide that a member violated something, and that TST member is removed from all internal communications with other members

We are suspending your membership for a period of six (6) months effective immediately. You will no longer have access to our meetings, events, publications, internal email lists nor our Facebook chats during this time. At the end of 6 months, should you choose to rejoin active membership, you will be required to interview with the Strategy Council regarding your motivations, and sign a new membership agreement

Thank you,
Siri Sanguine, Barret Daniels, & Tarkus Claypool.

Those in power will give their spin on why this person was bad & exiled

Your only recourse is appealing to someone higher up: the “International Council” (now Suryan Council?) representative who deals with the chapterheads & media liaisons regularly—and doesn’t know your name

If you are someone who The Satanic Temple thinks it can make a buck off of and/or if you do have a personal relationship with someone above the local level, maybe you’ll be OK.

But that’s not typical.

(Again, to no one’s surprise, six months later, Jesse Card was not reinstated.)

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“DEM”

Another former member of The Satanic Temple in Washington State.

If you’ve ever seen a photo of TST WA, you have probably seen this person.

Months of unaddressed sexual harassment led them to leave; later local leaders chose to expel multiple members rather than apologize to DEM for what may have been inadvertent copying of a satanic character design DEM had come up with, but even if so was still clearly hurtful and part of a history of past harms.

First, the same TST member was allowed to sexually harass me, over 5 reported counts, and even going as far as looking up my dress during The Womxns March movement while licking his lips, with the chapter doing nothing to prevent it from happening until AFTER he sexually harassed other femme folk in the chapter.

Second, I speak with TST members I consider good friends to talk about the chapter to stop using my Lady Lucifer image, as I was on the fence of if I still wanted to be apart of the movement after all that sexual harassment was allowed to continue.

Plus, it had been years since the Bremerton Protest, and by then I just wanted them to create and use a new image for them and leave it at that.

Now, I’m seeing my Lady Lucifer character, which has also been my character for my past cam work AND is my character for my business, being redone by other members for their current movements without asking me how I would feel about them using my character.

That “Furiosa” look I had wasn’t a “Furiosa” look at all, and was a play off of several paintings and illustrations I had done years before that movie even came out.

So, of course I can’t copyright a makeup design so similarly done in a franchise film, that has been so similarly done in SEVERAL other things as well, before that, but I’m really fuckn bothered by the lack of reach out on how I felt about the rework of my Lady Lucifer look and just the lack of originality or creativity, that I agreed to redo for the Bremerton Protest.

It started as one of my original drawings, then I used the makeup design for a last minute costume, then I used the makeup and horn combination for the Bremerton movement after being asked to do so, and started using my character design for the cam work and modeling I did because it’s my look and I can do that, and have continued to integrate the design into my business.

And now this is going on.

And now I really don’t think I ever want to go back to being apart of TST.

Y’all know how to contact me, but clearly weren’t bothered to do so.

Thanks.

Also, I don’t care that this post may even remotely be considered petty. I’m tired of staying quiet about my frustration and why I stopped attending any meetings or movements.

Source: DEM in person post on Facebook.com (March 8, 2020), mirrored on Twitter.com

A subsequent Facebook post from the same person responsible for the iconic “Lady Lucifer” character, again, one that appeared in national media and went viral on social media This followed The Satanic Temple deciding to sue four of the members the local chapter had expelled (hi)

As most of y’all are aware, I left The Satanic Temple then Seattle Chapter, now known as the WA State Chapter, in 2017 following the lack of action and care when I stepped forward, multiple times with proof, that I was being sexually harassed and groomed by an older member of the chapter since 2015. That member wasn’t removed until 7 months later, when other femme presenting members said they were now being harassed, as well. TST WA then sent out an e-mail stating a member had been removed for inappropriate behaviors towards other members. In that e-mail, they anonymously mentioned my reports, by stating “There were reports made by previous members, but those could of been handled between each other, and we didn’t feel it necessary to intervene.”

You know, pretty much saying that a young 20 yo, femme presenting, non-binary who OPENLY STATED several times to leadership that I had joined a few months following the closure of a murder trial against my abuser and rapist, who attempted my life and took the life of another girl, when I was ages 14 to 16, was at all within the mental and emotional capacity to verbally address an older males behaviour towards.

Which was sent to them, in writing, that because of that trauma, and other similar instances, I did not feel at all comfortable confronting him, and I was told that leadership would address the issue and stop it from continuing. That TST didn’t have tolerance for that behaviour. But clearly it was all a lie. And they did nothing until 7 months later, when he then started targeting other members. Seven. Months. After. My. Leaving. They allowed him to harass multiple people by not seriously listening to me.

So after leaving, I asked to have them remove my “iconic” Lady Lucifer images from all of their sites, advertisements, medias, archives, etc.

They kept using my images to promote themselves until this. year [2020].

And what did they do, when called out on it again?

They removed it, and then very straight forwardly copied the character to continue riding that wave, since I denied them the original.

Former members then opened a complaint case for me, where leaderships focused solely on the copied image, and half ass addressed the sexual harassment claims. All I asked from them was a fucking apology from the leadership members who allowed it to continue. They deemed it unnecessary to do so. Members then began leaving, with the complaint case being a sort of “cherry on top” of other injustices such as more covered up sexual harassment, authoritarian hierarchies, transphobia, fascist alignments, silencing members who speak out.

Four members, who were cc’d in another leadership complaint case, were then removed from the chapter without any communication as to why, and are now being sued for upwards of $150,000…(sic)

Simply put, they need help covering their legal fees to fight TST in the federal court. If you click the link, you’ll be able to read a more in depth on why TST is sueing them, but per the subpoena, they can only talk about a small amount of it.

If you’re able to financially help, they need it.
If you’re willing to, please share it.

If you’re a former member, who has been mistreated in some manner by TST, they’re asking that you share this fundraiser, while saying what they did to you. And if you’re comfortable doing so, to do so publicly.

Source: DEM in person post on Facebook.com (May 8, 2020), mirrored on Twitter.com

The Satanic Temple asks that you disbelieve everyone but them.

I shared this fundraiser last night, with the copied text from my friend, and one of the former members being sued. But I’m sharing again and I’ll repost what they said in the comments.

I know link shares get burried by the algorithm, and I know there’s SO much going on, but this is still extremely important.

This followed after former members opened a complaint case, for me, for the absolute fucking neglect of leadership when I reported sexual harassment and grooming by an older, white male member, from 2015 to 2017, multiple times.

Take a minute to think about that.

They used the fact that I was ALSO mad about them still using my image, and then very blatantly copying the image I asked them to stop using, as a means to paint me as irrational in my demands for acknowledgment, admittance of tenet violation, and a simple ass fucking apology from at least one of the two in leadership, who not only reassured me several times that they would prevent him from doing any of that to me and did absolutely nothing, but THEN removed him 7 months after I left TST because I could no longer safely attend meetings and movements due to this man continually harassing me. Seven fucking months later, and ONLY after he started harassing multiple other women, and femme presenting, members. AFTER he got worse. They had the audacity to say in the e-mail about his removal, that they thought the “dispute” between the two of us was something that we could have discussed on our own. Me, barely 21, joining months after the murder trials for my rapist ended, having told them that several times, was expected by two older white members to de-escalate the sexual harassment from a late 40’s/almost 50 yo white man. Even after I told them I was too scared to address it on my own. And all of these were recorded complaints, that I still have reciepts of. Even with proof, and multiple members agreeing they did me wrong, they refused my demands because my being angry about my image being used/copied was too petty to them, and they used that as an excuse to write off the whole side of me demanding acknowledgment, admittance, and a fuckn apology from leadership for allowing me to be continually harmed in their religious business. That’s all that group is, a religious business guised as an activist group for the outcasts. The Satanic Temple is fucked.

So if you can support these four members, please do. Unfortunately, due to the subpoenas for the lawsuit, they can’t hardly say anything of their side of the story, and that’s just how the facist, authoritarian members of The Satanic Temple like it.
Please help them fight this. Please help them, and others, fight for their legal rights to publicly state the fucked up wrong doings that goes on within this organization. Please.

Source: DEM in person post on Facebook.com (June 30, 2020), mirrored on Twitter.com

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Michael Osiris Snuffin

Like others here, I suddenly lost access to the TST discord channel and was given no reason as to why it happened. I inquired about it through other members, and that led to an email exchange with Turkey Poo, and that’s how I finally learned the reasons for my expulsion from TST-WA. Here’s the core of it:

“I am revoking your membership from the chapter- for engaging conduct inconsistent the spirit of the Satanic Temple (distrust of leadership, and being toxic in the context of supporting a leader who was banned for life) and engaging in-fighting (recruiting others to leave), both of which are a violations of Prospective Member Agreement.”

The banned leader was of course Derek Piersing. We became friends in TST and remained friends after he was forced out. When an organization starts dictating who you can and cannot hang out with, said org is heading into cult territory.

And for the record, I never recruited others to leave TST. In fact, when I was an active member I encouraged disaffected members to stay in TST.

Source: Michael Osiris Snuffin in private Facebook group (March 16, 2020)

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Luciana Lovecraft

Former The Satanic Temple – Washington State Chapter member Luciana Lovecraft on why she left (May 6, 2020), confirming much of the pettiness and capricious authoritarianism of the local leadership.

For those who haven’t figured it out…

I am no longer a part of TST-WA.

It took a while for me to feel comfortable making an announcement while some of my family members got up to speed on the situation.

Over the past 3 years I spent so much time standing up for TST-WA to people who thought it was a cult or a group of sinners trying to make noise in the media, and I felt confident arguing that they were an organization built to help others and fight for religious equality & reproductive rights, and stand up for marginalized people, promoting service to those in need with the ultimate goal of separating church and state. That may have been how they started out, but over time things really changed.

As time went on it started to become clear that the very tenets that attracted me to the organization were not something they take seriously, and it became more and more obvious that the main goal was to protect the name and image of the people on top.

Members were kept in the dark any time there was an issue behind the scenes. It seemed like people were getting kicked out randomly and abruptly

The last in person meeting I attended, we were yelled at by the chapter-head for “not cleaning up after a party”
The party cleanup crew (for every other party or event I ever attended during my time at TST-WA) had always been prearranged by the ‘strategy counsel’– and for some reason this time it fell through. Members were NOT notified of this. Nobody who left the party was informed that they had dropped the ball this time.
Due to it NOT being arranged and determined by the people who are responsible to arrange it, the person who provided their home for the event decided (after this incident and a prior very unacceptable incident) that they wanted to depart from TST-WA.

–I left the party a few minutes after the chapter head who shamed and screamed at us for not cleaning up, and before she left she did not mention one word about a need for a new cleanup crew. If that was mentioned I know at least 4 members who would’ve stayed to help instead of leaving and assuming it was taken…

We spent almost 1/2 the meeting with various members (who weren’t even there or a part of the situation and didn’t attend the party) shaming us and berating us for something that should’ve been arranged by the very people who were screaming in our faces. Someone on zoom even said “YOU GUYS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.”

I was upset and appalled that they felt the need to spend so much time blaming and yelling at us for a situation that was literally the fault of the leadership team who was supposed to organize it.

At this time I decided I did not want to be a part of the Olympia event that TST-WA so desperately tried to pull members out of the woodwork to attend.

I did not feel valued or supported as a member, I felt like a body filling up the space.

The event was all being arranged by the two people who seemed to be at the root of a lot of the drama/complaint situations and the people who made a lot of members uncomfortable or leave all together, and I didn’t want to take…

Members were kept in the dark any time there was an issue behind the scenes. It seemed like people were getting kicked out randomly & abruptly at times & members were always given only one side of the story, and were never really informed when the initial problems occurred. …

After that event, TST-WA was getting press and media attention and it was brought to their attention that the style of makeup worn by many members at the event –was a design that a former member had come up with, a former member who’s sexual harassment claims were ignored, a member who –TST-WA profited off of their image in the past even after that member repeatedly asked TST-WA to remove their image from being associated w/ TST-WA. We had used their signature look in an event that got a lot of media attention, and the former member was expressing feeling wronged by this action.

When a member brought up this concern to leadership they were basically told to be quiet. (while leadership swept it under the rug or covered it up again—and tried to come up with reasons NOT to accept responsibility for the mistake, apologize or rectify any wrong doing.)

When the member who suggested on apologizing wasn’t quiet about it and continued to say that we should apologize, leadership started…

This time they forgot to remove permissions of someone who took the liberty of commandeering the page. I guess that’s just a risk that you assume when you give someone the permission over you page tho

Even FB’s own help center says:
“Keep in mind that once you make someone an admin, they’ll be able to remove members or admins, add new admins and edit the group description and settings.
Pages that are members of your group can’t be group admins or moderators.”
So someone removed the other admins and took over
the page … including the “likes” that TST-WA page had acquired and used it as an opportunity to get the message out there about all of the events that transpired leading up to that event.

TST-WA tried to claim this was “hacking” but it truly was neglect on their part to fully remove permission of people they decided to impulsively remove for reasons that still aren’t quite clear.
Everyone who I ever felt a connection to in TST-WA was either kicked out or decided to leave…

Now TST-WA has decided to sue for the “facebook page hacking”, and has once again included people who have done nothing but selflessly give and give and give to TST without getting anything in return.

The situations that I have seen play out and behaviors that I have witnessed during my time in TST-WA completely conflict with the image that TST-WA promotes to members and the media.

It is disgusting and I cannot be associated with an organization that so blatantly behaves in a way that opposes everything they claim to stand for.

They are truly doing the opposite of what they say they are doing and have successfully associated Satanism with evil again. I still consider myself a Satanist and an atheist but not by TST’s definition.

I still hold the values that attracted me to TST-WA and personally uphold the tenets in my daily life. I just cannot be connected with an organization that revealed itself to be as secretive, deceptive and cruel as TST-WA has proven to be.

Luciana Lovecraft on Facebook.com

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Lucy Rebel Heart

I haven’t ever talked about this publicly, but it’s time to be honest about #WhyILeftTST.

In 2017 I was struggling with religious trauma and my gender. I became interested in Romantic Satanism and was also inspired by a Trans Satanic Artist who was in The Satanic Temple.

I joined online shortly after. At first I felt like I was home. I strongly aligned with the shared belief of personal autonomy and community service. But as I started to come out as Trans, I noticed quite a few members (some in leadership) began having issues with me.

I also noticed pushback begin with things like Black Lives Matter and positive speak about Eugenics. Speaking out against this in the online groups led to messages to me with flat out bigotry. When I would bring this to leadership I would be treated like I was the problem.

This took a huge toll on my mental health. I felt like where I once had people who promised to “have my back” now treating me like I didn’t belong in their circle as a Trans Disabled person.

After one particular experience with bigotry in the online group, one of the leaders suggest I join a local group. It was explained to me that bigotry like that isn’t allowed in person, plus they could use my help with community service and expanding the area of influence.

Not all online interaction was bad, I want to make that clear. I had relationships and deep connections with many people I still miss. The TST relationships I made saw me through losing my job due to transphobia, accepting being disabled and helping me learn to self advocate.

Over time though, those people seemed to leave and those positive interactions were less and less. You see, there had been a resurface of the infamous podcast where Lucien, co-founder, expressed vile, racist and disturbing views. And not just him, others involved in TST.

I had no personal involvement with Lucien beyond a couple Twitter interactions, so I wasn’t aware of a pattern of behavior. It was explained away to members. Some leadership made themselves available to speak to and worked hard to curb our justified fears of bigotry.

Growing up in a Christian cult with unhealed trauma, I was easily susceptible to blindly believing leaders. After another Trans member began getting more recognition and the church began taking a visible stance against transphobia, I thought things were changing.

So I applied for membership to the Seattle TST Chapter. I was very inspired by leaders like Lilith and Trans members making good trouble in and around Seattle. Considering the transphobia I experienced online in TST, I was excited to find a safe place that aligned with my views.

My application was submitted and I was soon contacted to go through an interview to make sure I would be a good fit. The two people who met me were kind, accepting and nice. I was approved and excited to move on to the next chapter.

It then came to my attention, as I wasn’t aware before, that Lucien hired the same lawyer as Alex Jones. A lawyer who associates with horrible racists and has defended CP and racism.

I brought these concerns up with one of the parties I met with, after I had been accepted into the Seattle online group. I was told that he was offering a free service, that it was purely a business choice and that Lucien would never harm anyone with bigotry.

I knew that wasn’t true, we had historical evidence of that. I was very disgusted. I was invited to my first Seattle event and I was very excited to connect with more Trans people, but very shortly after that the shunning and lawsuit against @QueerSatanic started.

I tried my best to ask why this was happening, because some of these people were beyond kind to me and always helped me in my quest for liberation and freedom. But I could never get a solid answer. At this point I decided to cancel my attendance to my first in person meeting.

I used this time to really dig into the history of TST, where the money went and why this lawsuit needed to happen and continue during a pandemic. I didn’t like what I found and couldn’t reconcile it with Satanism at all. It felt like a deep betrayal.

It was at this point the mirage of TST broke for me. I was so ashamed that there was this, for lack of better term for my personal experience, conditioning that kept me sucked into a group that promised belonging while also engaging in eugenics and trans rights debates.

At this point I withdrew my membership process with TST Seattle and ended my membership with TST. I felt betrayed and angry that I left all social media for a bit and disengaged with all members. But I think it’s healthy to share our personal experiences with leaving for healing.

I was never involved in any in person Seattle meetings and I have nothing to add or take away from the lawsuit. These tweets are simply my personal experience, viewpoints and feelings. I discourage anyone from sending any harm to Lucien, TST, Queer Seattle or anyone else involved.

I also was involved under my dead name and prior to any medical transitions. It won’t surprise me that I may not be remembered. But it’s still my personal story to share and hopefully help others who lost community.

Source: Lucy Rebel Heart, Twitter.com (Archived)

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