A Controversial Fundraiser

January 30th, 2014 / 10:06 pm disqus_B62jJEdlXn—

hell of an accusation.

January 30th, 2014 / 10:24 pm disqus_MfjCvjBlcJ—

When were they ever married? This is just outrageous and irresponsible to post such serious content! And to not get any information or comment from the other half of this equation?

January 30th, 2014 / 10:41 pm disqus_MfjCvjBlcJ—

Of course not. But the blurb up there discusses a man beating his wife. So if that is a false statement, how do I know the rest of it isn’t false as well? I also saw on Twitter that “no other victims” have come forward but that Kat knows there are others. I’m just confused on the validity of all of this. Has anyone reached out to Greg’s girlfriend and the person who founded his campaign to treat his OCD and BPD? I’m interested in her comments to all of this as well.

January 30th, 2014 / 10:50 pm Andrew Keating—

The “man beating on his wife” statement was an illustrative example, not an example of something that Sherl did. I just wanted to make sure that was clear.

Also, I knew of this from another victim before I knew Kat. I’m proud of her for saying something, because it’s an incredibly difficult thing to confess. What’s worse is that Kat and other victims are subjected to criticism of this nature any time they do try to reveal what has happened to them, regardless of who the abuser is. We should be encouraging people to step forward and making sure they have nothing to be afraid of when they do.

January 30th, 2014 / 10:56 pm Andrew Keating—

This is something I definitely agree with. I want Sherl to get help, and I’m not denying that he has OCD or any other disorder. But if that’s the case, then why isn’t that part of the reasoning for his wanting the charity? Why isn’t he speaking up and say “I’ve done some horrible things as a result of my disorder(s).” If I only had the fundraiser description to rely on, I’d think that Sherl’s only victim is/was himself, and that’s unfair to the people that he *has* victimized. Where’s their charity? He wants $10K to get himself straight, but I’d much rather see $10K go to helping get his victims straight first.

January 30th, 2014 / 11:16 pm Andrew Keating—

You know, the comments I made were on Facebook. If you want to tease them out and nit-pick, you’re welcome to spend your time doing so, but I’m not going to lose any sleep because somebody who seems intent on siding an abuser wants to trip up my phrasing. I stand by the people I know who have been abused by him. I support them fully, and that was my only intent in making the post that Rauan was quoting above.

January 30th, 2014 / 11:31 pm disqus_MfjCvjBlcJ—

FTFY; they were never married but at some point lived together. During that he abused the former girlfriend but did not beat her bc she was unable to remove a stain from.his shirt. His current girlfriend started a fundraiser to treat his illness but this may not have been the right thing to do because some people feel.he should remain sick. Is that about right?

January 30th, 2014 / 11:46 pm Daniel Bailey—

i don’t know anything about this situation, but the fact that you’re enthusiastically and prolifically commenting on this anonymously is creepy as hell. please stop.

January 31st, 2014 / 12:00 am BrianAllenCarr—

Some of the points they’re making are valid.

January 31st, 2014 / 12:20 am Michael Schmeltzer—

If readers are coming to this situation as complete strangers and immediately start questioning the validity of Kat Dixon’s and Andrew Keating’s claims, I hope they take the time to ask themselves why they are defaulting against potential victim(s) and not with them.

January 31st, 2014 / 12:25 am Crowdfunding VS Charity – where do we draw the line? | Kia Groom—

[…] I read this, and the statements of Kat Dixon, and I realized: it is okay for me to feel angry about this shit […]

January 31st, 2014 / 12:27 am Michael Schmeltzer—

I think many people want to see Sherl receive treatment for his illness(es). But receiving treatment is not always synonymous with receiving compassion. The anonymous commenter’s dismissive tone regarding the victim and the abuse is rather appalling. Again, I don’t understand why people who have no personal ties end up questioning the victim in situations like this.

January 31st, 2014 / 12:36 am Donora Hillard—

“He completely demoralized me, ground me down, and submitted me to what I can only describe as severe psychological torture. The specifics are not important, in my view, but I felt it was important to add my voice to Kat Dixon’s. If Gregory Sherl could make me attempt to slit my wrists in a bath tub from thousands of miles away, I can only imagine what he would have been like to live with.”

January 31st, 2014 / 12:48 am joseph—

There isn’t a person here couldn’t use some assistance in paying med bills which is probably why most of us do not pay them at all. I suggest Greg gets some treatment if he needs or wants it, then throws the bills away when they arrive.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:04 am danielromo—

We all could use $ to help ourselves, but in the words of a good friend regarding the “fundraiser” before any of this, “Like fuck bro, I got a lot of shit goin on too, but handle your shit.”

January 31st, 2014 / 2:32 am Dena Rash Guzman—

There are no flashy words here. Some of us know these people. Know of them and have read their work. Published them. This is heartbreaking to read. I agree this was not well-reported but am with others in thinking your tone combined with your anonymity is, for lack of a flashier word, creepy. This is serious. It is so serious that reading it made me cry. Your tone is super Loki. Please chill.

January 31st, 2014 / 3:15 am jereme_dean—

Uhm, if OCD, BPD, Narcissistic Personality Disorder lead to abuse then everyone afflicted with those ‘diseases’ would be abusive, righhhht?

We already know that absolute isn’t true.

It’s the same shit when assholes blame drugs for shitty behavior. I’ve done more opiates than anyone i’ve known and haven’t ever done anything shitty to another human being.

It ain’t the drugs. It ain’t the illness. It’s the human being.

January 31st, 2014 / 3:29 am jereme_dean—

Think it’s funny how certain people are labeled a ‘misogynist’ for writing about a woman’s body while someone who’s actually abusive towards women receives less outrage.

Something to think about, I guess.

Anyways…

I have this really small list. I’m not going to say the name of the list. It’s just a list.

Greg is one of the people on it.

I really hope we meet someday.

To talk about why he’s on the list.

January 31st, 2014 / 5:53 am deadgod—

I don’t know whom to believe.

I’m disposed to believe self-identified victims, especially corroborative ones.

But I’ve been maliciously accused of things I didn’t do. I didn’t like that.

And I don’t trust condemnation of reasonable questions and of hesitance by the uninformed to judge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial

January 31st, 2014 / 11:35 am Dena Rash Guzman—

Am I outraged by this? Fuck yes I am. Does that help? Thanks.

January 31st, 2014 / 12:14 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

Fuck! I just cannot think of a worse fucking place to see this discussion had than here. Moving on. This is like talking about a feminism in a boys high school locker room minutes after the football team takes state.

January 31st, 2014 / 12:26 pm Lisa Marie Basile—

Irresponsible, half-assed or lazy posting aside, the fact was that it was an illustrative anecdote (these situations are delicate but this is literary community reportage and not everyone is a trained journalist–not excusing the confusion) but man, anyone who default-questions / victim-nitpicks to this extent either a) is missing the bigger picture, b) is just a little bit shitty or b) might be someone who knows too much/is associated with said shittiness, using a purposefully anonymous disqus handle

January 31st, 2014 / 12:28 pm Lisa Marie Basile—

Meh. This post was lazy and inconsiderate. It’s like throwing meat to the sharks, when there are real people involved.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:09 pm Rauan Klassnik—

i disagree, Lisa Marie. I do not think my post was “lazy and inconsiderate.” And I am certainly aware that real people are involved.

you seem, though, to be really trigger-happy– and
HTMLGIANT is an easy target now.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:23 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

criticizing htmlgiant is about as easy as a nuclear war, Klassnik.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:24 pm Mark Cugini—

What Rauan said. I don’t know who I align with (as I don’t know Gregory or Kat and Kia personally), but I felt uncomfortable enough about the situation to ask for my donation back. And I’m happy that Kat and Kia and Andrew and Rauan raised my attention to this.

But you hate us. Thanks. We get it.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:34 pm Lisa Marie Basile—

Maybe I am trigger happy. Acceptable assertion.

It just needed a little more filling-out.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:44 pm rawbbie—

felt the same way when Dean Young was asking for money for a new heart.

January 31st, 2014 / 1:50 pm Amy McDaniel—

See my post above for why this went up so quickly.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:14 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

Don’t hate you at all.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:23 pm Andrew Keating—

Deadgod: It seems, more than anything, that you are assuming that I had an intent to mislead. The exact moment that I learned that my phrasing had the possibility of being misleading, I attempted to clarify. I’ve apologized for any confusion. I’m not really sure why you’re so focused on the phrasing, rather than the real and serious problem at hand.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:27 pm Andrew Keating—

Rauan: I think, to some extent, that I’m the one being accused of being “lazy and inconsiderate.” I’m okay with that, to be honest, because, as Lisa Marie points out in a later comment, I’m not a trained journalist. This is not a medium that I typically write for, and I had no reasonable expectation that my post on Facebook would be put to this level of scrutiny. I apologize now, as I have before, for using an example not specific to Sherl or Kat or Kia or anyone else to illustrate my anger over the crowd-funding that Sherl was/is looking for.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:34 pm deadgod—

You presented Sherl’s “fundraiser” in one sentence, with a link, and Dixon’s “statement”–including her quoted accusation–in one sentence, with a link. You then quoted Keating fairly extensively in support of Dixon.

In doing this, you leave it for your (not-personally-involved and distant) readers to go to the links (and whatever else they’d like to look up on the internet) and make their own minds up – to the extent that someone not personally involved can.

Your post is, to me, the opposite of “lazy and inconsiderate”.

You’re being blamed for not imposing a position as convinced as your blamer’s is. That accusation, to me, is ‘insincere’ and “half-assed”.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:38 pm Amy McDaniel—

Oh temporarily it seemed to be. But is it like Kickstarter where you have to make your whole goal? With some of these, you get whatever is pledged even if not.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:43 pm deadgod—

Well, I don’t think I’m assuming anything. I thought, in reading your quotation in the blogicle, that you were calling Sherl a ‘wife-beater’ – unqualifiedly, a Bad Thing – , and if that’s what people here using the word “abuse” mean, great! Name and shame.

But, as you say, domestic violence is “real and serious” – I’d say, as serious as problems on an individual scale get. It’s because I take it seriously that I want this ugly, dangerous shit to be handled clearly.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:52 pm Mark Cugini—

Word. Looking back at deadgod/Andrew’s discussion, I see where you’re coming from re: the initial post being lazy. I wholeheartedly disagree (and am mildly offended) with your blanket statement about “everything here [having] an air of insincerity,” but I can at least understand your concerns with the initial post. Apologies for that.

January 31st, 2014 / 2:59 pm mimi—

regardless of your intent, i too was mislead

January 31st, 2014 / 3:18 pm reynard seifert—

i spy a grim present where writers use social media to build sympathy for their own copperfieldish characters so they can hustle audiences with fundraisers

i just hope this (apparent) farce doesn’t end in tragedy, like the recent dr. v controversy — not everything is about picking sides, thankfully life is a lot more complicated than that

January 31st, 2014 / 3:39 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

hi deadgod. I don’t see outright support for Sherl. I didn’t mean to imply I did. How our community handles it forward is important. At this point, I stand with Kat and the women and men hurt now, and that’s all.

January 31st, 2014 / 3:48 pm Ben Spivey—

That’s gross.

January 31st, 2014 / 3:56 pm Andrew Sargus Klein—

still doesn’t change the fact that you’re using this issue as a means to re-litigate your own arguments from the past, which is super petty and beside the point

January 31st, 2014 / 4:00 pm Ben Spivey—

Hope it gets picked up.

January 31st, 2014 / 4:14 pm Andrew Sargus Klein—

Apologies, that was unclear wording on my end. What I take issue with is this: on a post about domestic abuse, you lead with:

“Think it’s funny how certain people are labeled a ‘misogynist’ for writing about a woman’s body while someone who’s actually abusive towards women receives less outrage.”

And then follow up with:

“Still dosn’t change the fact that the only time certain feminists make a big deal about something is when they are personally slighted. Which was my point. ‘Something to think about.’ ”

Whatever issues you’ve had in the past over who calls who a misogynist for whatever reason (because clearly you do have issues with this, though I don’t know what specifically), this isn’t the place to talk about that in a productive way. It’s utterly beside the point, here; it’s distracting and needlessly antagonizing. You’re simply turning the core issue here—domestic abuse—and making it personal, in some way, and in doing so dilute the fact that you clearly think this Sherl guy is an asshole and that you are glad people are calling him out.

January 31st, 2014 / 4:46 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

Andrew, I saw it as an illustration, not a report. All this is doing is drawing attention away from the issue at hand, which is allegations of violence. Thanks for trying to point that out as the issue to begin with. I get your clarification.

January 31st, 2014 / 5:12 pm Donora Hillard—

Please get off this frequency. You are contributing nothing.

January 31st, 2014 / 5:34 pm deadgod—

Dixon’s original post mentioned “physical […] and sexual abuse”. Hillard, on this thread, says, “He almost killed me.”

Maybe these assertions are literal.

If so, what’s being talked about? ‘Assault’, ‘rape’, and ‘attempted murder’, it sounds like, to me. Am I wrong? Because if I’m not, Sherl shouldn’t merely be playah-shamed on the internet.

(Passage of time is no universal or uniform bar to resentment, bitterness, or, indeed, malice in the pursuit of vengeance.)

January 31st, 2014 / 5:50 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

This one time I accidentally trespassed on a private street. I was trying to get down to the beach. A man came out of his house yelling at me from his ocean view balcony to get the fuck off his private street. I said, “I am sorry for trespassing. It won’t happen again. Can I still enter the beach through the gate? I am at it already.” He threatened me, saying, “Get the fuck off my street the way you came in before I call the police.” As I started back toward the gate, he yelled, “That’s right. I am up here. You are down there. You do as I say.” I returned back to the gate and exited to the beach. Have fun playing marbles with the planets, Jereme Dean. I LOVE hopscotch,

January 31st, 2014 / 5:56 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

Don’t compliment yourself too much there, JD. We – meaning myself and other ‘feminists’ I know of – are working on this. That said we don’t just jump to yell. And not one of us are jumping because you are demanding it and using quotation marks dismissively. We process. We don’t just spit shit out. We talk to the people making allegations first and stuff. “Feminists” have a funny way of handling allegations of physical abuse and it seldom involves thoughtlessly throwing shit around our “cage” like some kind of “ape.” – thanks for proving my point about your comment yourself. You meant it to antagonize and that is not called for in a situation like this and that is why this conversation should not be taking place here.

January 31st, 2014 / 5:58 pm Donora Hillard—

I don’t have a blog, dude. I got lots of context, though.

January 31st, 2014 / 6:12 pm Roxane—

Abuse can take place in a lot of different ways. The substantiation is a show of support.

I was taken aback by the original post, because I’ve known Greg Sherl for years and in fact, blurbed his novel last week, which feels quite uncomfortable now. Witch hunts serve no one’s best interests but this doesn’t feel like a witch hunt. I hope Sherl gets the help he clearly needs but I’m not going to doubt victims or belittle them, or get cute with cherry picking their statements to make some kind of vague point, as you have done.

January 31st, 2014 / 6:56 pm deadgod—

I’m glad you contributed some context, dude, and wouldn’t tell you not to contribute more. I don’t know if this guy perpetrates malevolent violence; if he does, he should be stopped and punished.

January 31st, 2014 / 7:24 pm Kia—

Naturally I can’t substantiate allegations of physically violent or physically sexually inappropriate behavior. As you point out, I was not there physically. But I felt it was important to speak up because, in my experiences (which, yes, took place via Skype, e-mails, Facebook chat, Twitter etc, over a period of 3-5 months), the kind of psychological manipulation, coercion and need for control that likely underlie the more serious things that Kat Dixon experienced were very much at play in my relationship with Sherl. And yes, it was a relationship – we live in a digital age. You’re not opening your eyes if you think people can’t be taken advantage of and victimized online. I really have no desire to delineate the finer points of those 3 months, but the relationship was predicated on an insane degree of control on the part of Sherl, and unfortunately I was silly enough, at the time, to give him that power and not walk away. Am I somewhat culpable? Absolutely. I am culpable in a way that Kat, whose situation was much more serious, much more dangerous, is not. But again, it seemed important to me to speak up about my experiences, because there is a similarity, and because I hoped it might give others the courage to do so. Perhaps that will prove to be a mistake. For what it’s worth, I genuinely do hope he gets help, but I think OCD is the least of his worries.

January 31st, 2014 / 7:28 pm jereme_dean—

The Sherl Camp responds: “The fundraiser is about to
close and I just wanted to thank everyone so much for their support in
this campaign. What’s truly incredible is the amount of personal
messages both Greg and I have received from people struggling with
similar issues. We’ve had some amazing conversations with people all
over the world. People have reached out to us and, hopefully, found that
they are not alone in their battles. More than anything we wanted to
use this as an opportunity to start talking about mental health in a
public sphere, to make it more okay to talk about mental health, and
this is something we’ll continue to do.

Love,

Sarah”

January 31st, 2014 / 7:35 pm jereme_dean—

Just envisioned you in a room full of cats throwing a frappucino on the floor, then raising your hands above your head while saying “i am soooo done, everyone.”

The cats looking back at you, heads tilted, confused.

January 31st, 2014 / 8:07 pm julwa—

People don’t stand to gain anything but ridicule, shaming, potential ostracizing, and even potential assault from disclosing to the public that they have been abused by a famous, popular, or well-liked person. The statistic for how many false abuse claims there are, is the same statistic for how many false claims there are of all other crimes.

January 31st, 2014 / 8:19 pm deadgod—

Yes, that’s almost a tautology. But, with respect to the accusations against Sherl, what’s meant by “abuse”? Assault, rape, near-murderous violence? Or lying and cheating and domineering and talking partners into things they’re openly uncomfortable with? It’s no defense of douchebag tactics to say that that latter kind of “emotional abuse” is qualitatively different than “physical […] and sexual abuse” (however they’re connected (?) and however often they coexist). They’re two different kinds of ‘evil’–involving different levels of ability to defend oneself and so on–, being cheesy and being violently criminal. Fair?

January 31st, 2014 / 8:35 pm Kia—

Cheesy?

I don’t see where you’re seeing a tautology, but let me clarify. I think that yes, it’s fair to say that there are varying levels and degrees of abuse. It would be wrong of me to claim that the damage done to me was even approaching equivalent to what has happened to the other victims who have come forward, however yes, there was still damage done. It goes beyond “douchebag tactics”, lying, cheating, etc. Those things are, sadly, par for the course in many interpersonal relationships and are not things I would count as abuse, nor things I would enter a public forum to discuss (although of course they can be present in abusive relationships). The kind of psychological abuse I experienced (notice I say “psychological” and not “emotional” – this is important, as I feel to characterize it as emotional abuse is a subtle form of gaslighting that implies “gee, lady, sorry not sorry that your feelings were hurt, get over it” – this is not about my feelings, it’s about my mental health and stability) extends beyond hurt feelings, and/or being coerced into things I was not comfortable with. Of course there are different levels of ability to defend oneself: I never met the guy face to face (thankfully). I dodged a bullet. It’s very easy to say “well, why didn’t you just stop talking to him” or “why did you let him get away with x” and those are valid queries, but to ask them, and to shift the focus onto the victim, to say the victim is entirely responsible is to misunderstand the nature of psychologically abusive relationships. It’s very hard for me to talk about this with you (or anyone) without providing you with concrete examples, which I would rather not do, for numerous reasons. Can you accept that there’s a difference between psychological abuse and “silly woman got feelings hurt, playah gonna play”?

January 31st, 2014 / 8:46 pm Kia—

Of course – I agree – it is a different kind of abuse, a different kind of victimization. And I supported it because, although I cannot independently verify because I was not there, and I did not see it, I see no reason to disbelieve either KD or Donora. When cases of abuse hit the media (mainstream or underground/internet) it’s very easy to be critical of the alleged victim, to suggest that they’re lying, to start looking for holes in their version of events – particularly when the accused is popular and successful. For me, it was important to lend my voice of support to KD and Donora (neither of whom I knew before now, incidentally) and to tell a small part of my experience, which I do believe lends credibility to their experiences – because abusive behavior manifests in many different ways, and while of course just because someone was psychologically abusive it doesn’t necessarily follow that they were physically abusive, I think the overall picture should be taken into account, particularly in this case when you have three people (myself included) giving first-hand testimony of varying forms of abuse at the hands of the same individual.

Also, I’m sorry but there is still an element of dismissal and minimization in your assessment of my situation: it was not “embarrassing” and it did not boil down to GS being “devious”. It was more serious than that. I don’t generally put my reputation on the line because someone embarrassed me.

January 31st, 2014 / 8:59 pm deadgod—

Sure. Like publishing the fact that someone who knew that one was happily engaged had tried to pressure one into a threesome: trying to embarrass that other person for having been manipulative and sexually unscrupulous –– ‘playah shaming’.

Let me say, I don’t think that’s unfair: if you’re gonna play, people are going to talk about your playah moves.

But to me, that’s different than calling somebody “physically […] and sexually abusive”.

January 31st, 2014 / 9:13 pm julwa—

Thanks. I emailed Sarah, the organizer of the fundraiser and his partner (there’s a button to contact her on the page.) She said to email info@giveforward.com or call 312-322-1200 for a refund. I’m not sure whether or not it has to be done by the end of the fundraiser.

January 31st, 2014 / 9:21 pm deadgod—

I should’ve looked at this before answering your earlier “Dear god.” below.

I don’t say “emotional” to box your “psychological” into a head-pat. I took it from Dixon’s “physical, emotional, and sexual abuse”; I think the physical and sexual abuse should be set apart from emotional abuse. Of course, psychological coercion is experienced as ‘violent’ and can be plenty destructive to oneself, and I don’t look down–if that’s relevant or interesting–on anyone for self-castigaton, bitterness, and (measured) retaliation for having been tormented by some vicious bastard. It’s not always “easy” to walk away from a capable insinuator, and destructive to suppose it should be (for oneself or for others).

But ‘assault’ and ‘rape’ are something different. Maybe it’s naive to suppose that the physical and emotional can and should be separated from each other, as though, in a concrete relationship, they don’t blend into each other. But, as you say, deviousness is an unhappy part of many or most relationships of all sorts, where physical violence is, excepting only cases of self-defense, universally unacceptable.

January 31st, 2014 / 9:29 pm Kia—

Alright, I understand what you’re saying, but I still think you’re confusing psychological abuse with deviousness. They are perhaps related, but they are not the same thing.

Assault and rape are very serious allegations, and they are not allegations I am personally making. I do, however, offer my support to the victims, and will continue to do so in whatever way I can.

January 31st, 2014 / 9:52 pm Kia—

If you feel you should be wary, be wary. I don’t mean to put anyone in any kind of position, I only mean to support the women who I believe to be telling the truth, by telling my personal truth, and by being a voice in concert with theirs.

If people wish to belittle my claims, or belittle me personally, that’s fine. I acknowledge that my experiences are, in many ways, a different beast to those of KD and Donora. But they are symptomatic of the same kind of manipulative and abusive personality, and they were still extremely damaging and traumatic experiences.

If I’m reading you correctly (perhaps I’m not?) then I’m sorry you feel that what I had to say made it difficult for you to take the other allegations seriously. Obviously that was not my intent, and I do not wish to detract from the seriousness of the allegations made by the other victims. Food for thought. I’m stepping out of this shit show for a while (though I thank you for being respectful and measured in your dialogue with me).

January 31st, 2014 / 10:16 pm Dena Rash Guzman—

Here is your outrage. http://lunalunamag.com/2014/01/31/outrage-stand-with-kat-dixon-others-claiming-harm/

January 31st, 2014 / 11:50 pm jereme_dean—

Thanks, I saw it earlier when somebody posted it on facebook. Seriously, thank you. I hope more ‘feminists’/feminists do the same.

On an ancillary topic:

I’m confused… why are you posting this here? Aren’t you a-a-afraid. I mean, you did say that posting on htmlg was dangerous, like trying to talk feminism in the high school locker room after a team just won state.

And, bitch, if you’re going to call people names, show some respect and do it to their face. For fuck’s sake.

January 31st, 2014 / 11:56 pm jereme_dean—

Lol, in what way am I being hateful towards women.

February 1st, 2014 / 12:10 am jereme_dean—

First off, using a derogatory term doesn’t mean a person hates an entire gender. That logic is about as firm as a brick of swiss cheese floating in a pool of piss.

Second, bitch has multiple meanings. Just like the term fag doesn’t necessarily mean homosexual. There’s even a south park episode about it. Get over it.

Calling a person a hairy asshole or troll is just as hurtful as ‘bitch’.

What’s even more fucked up is implying that posting here is dangerous because it’s a place of mindless, rabid boys who just want to be violent.

Fuck you. Fuck Dena. Fuck everyone who wants to bully people. But, most importantly, fuck Greg Sherl.

I’m now done with the circuitous blab blab.

February 1st, 2014 / 4:50 am Citric—

let’s focus on the real issue of greg sherl sucking & how he should have to go get a job if he wants to pay someone to teach him how to stop washing his hands… i think it is so lame that just because he has a winning smile & makes a stupid fucking heart shape with his hands in a picture that people automatically want to fork money over to him when there are plenty of people who need money for reasons much more justifiable than being a g*ddamn moron who can’t quit cleaning himself…. i hope that everyone who donated money to this guy actually gets their money *returned* & that greg sherl ends up with zero dollars & gets a job as a janitor where he has to clean more important shit than his stupid body

February 1st, 2014 / 9:00 am Kia—

I think we should focus on Greg’s appalling treatment of women rather than his illness, which is legitimate and doubtless very painful and difficult to endure. I don’t at all doubt his suffering, and I think it’s reprehensible to mock someone for something they cannot change. He is sick. But that does not for a moment excuse his actions.

February 1st, 2014 / 11:08 am adk35—

But what happens to victims of abuse who file sexual assault or abuse charges against their lovers? What happens to women who realize abuse long after the fact when there is no physical evidence? What happens to those who claim psychological or emotional abuse? The system for reporting these things as crimes is not particularly friendly to victims.

I don’t pretend to know the details of what happened between the accusers and Gregory Sherl, but I can’t imagine I would ever doubt a claimed victim — male or female — on grounds of not filing a police report, considering that the numbers for reports are low, those that are prosecuted are lower still, and the charges that actually result in conviction are lowest of all. Meanwhile the victims are shamed, doubted, and dragged through the mud.

If these allocations are false? What Gregory Sherl can do is make assertions of libel. He has that recourse, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to prove than abuse charges. A sad truth.

February 1st, 2014 / 11:28 am mimi—

i don’t think anyone at all is trying to excuse his actions

February 1st, 2014 / 11:41 am mimi—

but filing a police report is one way to take action, and there are victim-support services available

i understand the fear and difficulty involved in choosing to file – fear of retaliation, etc

i speak from personal experience – i was accosted/carjacked by four young women right outside my home

i filed a police report, i chose not to file charges, they never apprehended the young women

February 1st, 2014 / 12:05 pm adk35—

I do not mean to make light of your experience, which I am sure was difficult and terrifying, but there is a world of systematic difference in the way a carjacking is treated by police and the sort of abuse Dixon has alleged.

February 1st, 2014 / 3:52 pm Ben Spivey—

1: he probably won’t address what’s happening.
2: Doubt it.

February 1st, 2014 / 10:01 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

OH GOD CAN SOMEONE WITH THAT PERSONALITY DISORDER COCKTAIL EVER BE HELPED HOLY SHIT ZZZZIPP IS GOING TO GO HIDE UNDER HIS BED

February 1st, 2014 / 10:22 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

THEY SHOULD FILE A REPORT THOUGH

NO THAT’S NOT GROUNDS FOR DISBELIEVING THE CLAIMS OF A VICTIM BUT IT IS GENERALLY A GOOD IDEA EVEN IF IT IS A DIFFICULT THING FOR ANYONE TO DO, MALE/FEMALE

February 2nd, 2014 / 2:18 am JustAPerson—

Dang. Saw Kat Dixons 50 million tweets at the Goodmen Project- so I decided to look at her twitter (looks like she has been tweeting nonstop upon waking until bed time for over 48 hours- that’s some crazy dedication I would never have time for. So, I clicked on all these links. I think like 3 websites I never heard if had issued open letters on their “support” of the many victims who came forward… Which, after researching are two girls who happen to be friends and a girl who never met Greg but was someone so overtaken by him that she almost killed herself. I saw Kat used to words rapist and abuser a lot. So did Sherl rape her? I’m so confused. Sexual assault is like.. A legit serious thing, right?! Like holy shit. But then I can’t find any info- and Sherl is like mums-the-word… Which leads me to believe that he’s already at his treatment facility and maybe has no idea this is happening? But then I think his sister was tweeting at Kat and that seems to be the only perso defending Greg. Though I will say, it doesn’t seem as if… His.. Lyrical verbiage is a genetic thing.

I do have to say that I don’t think going after the Goodmen Project makes sense. Like
It kind of made me question this girls motives because she is trolling them nonstop. And thy are not the only people who publish him? I guess it seems weird. And then I tried to imagine this very intense girl with a mentally ill bf and I got freaked out. People like that should not be dating each other.

I just kind of feel like everyone needs to take a breather. And that saying you were sexually abused by someone is upper serious and that people need to quit judging until they hear from all involved because I’m sorry- but two FRIENDS and a girl that never even met greg- like that doesn’t just make me automatically say THIS GUY IS GUILTY SO LET’S ALL GO ON TWITTER AND OUR WEBSITES AND TALK ANOUT HIS SWEATERS AND CALL H AA WOMAN ABUSER.

And what about his GF? Like if he’s so bad, why am I not seeing anything that’s worried for her? He only mention I’ve seen is condescending words about her. That’s like the opposite of feminism, right? I don’t know. I think more people would maybe be saying what I’m saying but are too afraid because you guys are like really freaking quick to jump negatively on anyone who asks a question and doesn’t just jump on the train to derail rGreg.

February 2nd, 2014 / 9:43 pm Donora Hillard—

Oh dear: Kat and I are FRIENDS. Work harder at your conspiracy. Thank you.

February 3rd, 2014 / 4:12 pm Here is Your Outrage: I Stand With Kat Dixon and Others Claiming Harm by DENA RASH GUZMAN | Gently Read Literature—

[…] on her statement. I hope no one claiming hurt is further hurt by this piece. While I commend HTMLGIANT for sharing this news, I do not believe its troll-inabited forums are a great space for discussion […]

February 4th, 2014 / 12:25 am My completely narcissistic take on an internet controversy in which I had a tiny role, my first - Three Strange Things—

[…] her into a threesome with the aforementioned Certa. You have to love guys. Then Donora Hillard in a comment to an agglomerator post at HTML Giant, although she had already communicated this to me personally. And Dixon continued her assault on […]

February 9th, 2014 / 12:56 pm Amy Silbergeld—

It’s difficult emotionally, and often practically as well, to litigate for this kind of violence. However, given that there are a number of victims, it seems as though it would be highly unlikely for Sherl to win. Especially because he’s not able to afford a good lawyer if he wasn’t able to afford residential treatment.

That said, I strongly support the right of every individual who is abused to make his or her own decisions about litigation. It can be a truly devastating process and, in some cases, an additional trauma.

I hope that the women hurt by Sherl have access to the resources they need to begin healing. So much empathy and love to all of you–

February 23rd, 2014 / 11:32 pm Internet Literary News, February 2014 (Pre-AWP) | Writeliving's Blog—

[…] The poetry world had its own version of the debate surrounding Dylan Farrow’s open letter about Woody Allen with an open letter from Kat Dixon to not support poet Gregory Sheryl’s fundraising efforts. Allegations of abuse became the topic of conversation on Dixon’s blog, on Twitter, and in HTML Giant. […]

November 13th, 2014 / 9:15 am Inside the campaign against Gregory Sherl, poet and alleged abuser - buzzcarl—

[…] another woman, Donora Hillard, had initially leveled claims against Sherl in a comment thread on an HTMLGIANT post about Dixon’s rallying cry, reported Dena Rash Guzman in Luna Luna Magazine at the end of that month. Writer Ryan Bradley […]

A Controversial Fundraiser

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