Rachael Denhollander Profile picture
Aug 20, 2019 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Try any of these: (thread)

- We apologize to (specific gymnasts) who warned about the abusive culture years ago. WE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED. We need their help now, and we are listening and believing and implementing what they are telling us.
2 - Survivors aren't being angry and demanding. They are right. We don't have a PR problem, we have a serious abuse problem, because we didn't listen for years.

Instead of blaming survivors, blame abusive coaches and silent enablers. The survivors are our allies (just try that)
3 - Instead of "but not all coaches are abusers!" and acting as if you are the victims of a bad press campaign, start helping us identify who the abusers/enablers are, and remove them. Prove to us you know what abusers look like, so we can trust when you say a coach isn't one.
4 - Pick something that went wrong, and just admit it. Name an abusive coach you should have stopped, because the abuse was right there for all to see.

Pick something that went on at the Ranch and say "we never should have allowed this."

Admit a mistake. Pick one. Just ONE.
5 - Pick a testimony from an elite gymnast revealing the devastation they suffered and the permanent effects, and admit the truth of what they are saying. Admit the horrific damage, and WHY that damage happened.

Validate ONE of your elite athletes who has spoken out. Pick ONE.
Until you can do one of these things (we've been asking for years), stop telling us you are treating this with urgency. You haven't admitted ONE problem yet.

You can't fix what you refuse to see and admit. Stop treating this like it's a problem with our perspective and your PR.

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More from @R_Denhollander

Jun 16
Gateway members - think well about your theology.

Repentance starts with confession - telling the truth about what happened. Check your pastor and elders words. Is this repentance?

This is described as a "morally inappropriate relationship" with a "young women"... Image
But in fact, it was an adult having sexual contact with a minor and pre-teen CHILD.

This is felony level child sexual assault.

And it didn't happen because she was "flirtatious".

It happened because a grown man was sexually aroused and gratified himself with a pre-teen child
Morris' own words, your elders own words, right now, in this moment, are neither confession nor repentance, because it isn't even beginning with the minimum threshold of telling the truth.
Read 7 tweets
May 23
Qualified immunity has created a system in which those with the most power, have the least accountability.

The reason the Nassar settlement with the FBI is so significant is because qualified immunity is essentially a complete bar to restitution for any malfeasance.

And...
It doesn't just protect law enforcement. It is typically interpreted to protect ANY government actor.

MSU had immunity against all the Nassar survivors because they are a state university and Larry and everyone who covered for him, was a state employee.
We received a measure of justice and forced some change only due to extreme public pressure. The law said MSU had full protection no matter what.

When we tried to lift QI in sex abuse cases, state universities, public schools and government lobby turned out in force, including
Read 7 tweets
Jan 14
On Larry Nassar and Paul Pressler, Michigan State University, USAG and the SBC, and all the ways they are different…

There are so many unsung heroes in my case. . .people that lent their voices, provided pieces of the puzzle, helped put away a predator, that no one knows about.
But they meant everything to me back then, and they still do.

1 – An MSU employee for the medical clinic who reached out to say “I don’t know Rachael. But I can tell you he’s not following the chaperone policies. None of us even knew he was supposed to be chaperoned.”
It didn’t prove I was telling the truth, but it showed that he was pushing the rules and boundaries. That he was disregarding the warnings he was given in 2014 about sexual assault. That he wasn’t following accepted practices regarding privacy and appropriate contact.
Read 31 tweets
Oct 31, 2023
Correct - notice in the photo her father is in uniform, with the dept being one of the parties in the brief.

So what is a "non-offending third party?" Does it mean a party who is innocent?
No, it doesn't mean "innocent" or "didn't do anything wrong". It means people or entities who didn't personally commit the crime, but includes those who may have:

1. Violated mandatory reporting.
2. Knew and did nothing.
3. Intentionally hid it.

And more.

So for example:
Catholic Priest John Geoghan, who raped at least 130 boys, is the perpetrator.

The Catholic Church who systematically hid the knowledge of his rape of children and put him in new parishes, allowing him to keep raping children, is the "non-offending third party".
Read 15 tweets
Jul 10, 2023
Justice is conformity to what is right. It should be pursued and fought for.

Forgiveness is releasing personal vengeance and desiring for the offender to find true repentance and peace.

I am holding both especially today.

freep.com/story/news/loc…
I still mean these words I spoke years ago:

"Larry, I want you to understand why I made this choice knowing full well what it was going to cost to get here and with very little hope of ever succeeding. I did it because it was right. No matter the cost, it was right..."
And the farthest I can run from what you have become is to daily choose what is right instead of what I want.

You have become a man ruled by selfish and perverted desires, a man defined by his daily choices repeatedly to feed that selfishness and perversion...
Read 11 tweets
Jun 5, 2023
If you have not watched “Shiny Happy People” on Amazon, do. If you are in the evangelical circles, please, you really should. Most importantly, we need to consider the breadth of IBLP’s influence and teachings, and ask how this affects what we see happening today...
Much has (rightly) been made of Josh Duggar’s abuse, how it was minimized and glossed over. How the girls were pressured into acting like it was ok. How the focus was immediately on forgiveness, and not on caring for survivors or assessing real change in an abuser...
How everyone defended the Duggar’s handling of it and ignored the dangers of failing to get Josh and his sisters help. But did you know that the Duggar’s pastor when the story first broke and all of that was happening, was eventual SBC Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd?
Read 12 tweets

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