Thread by @kat_blaque

Logging back onto Twitter to openly address and warn the Los Angeles Goth and BDSM community about DracHaus after they made THIS statement as a reaction to the venue being called out for hiring a known rapist.

Only making this thread to warn and b/c it was suppressed internally

#Drachaus is an “underground” afterhours in LA and it’s one I frequented for years. It is, inherently an edgy place where questionable things happen. It being underground also means that it’s been a great venue for many alt events in LA. I’ve been to many diff events there.

As an afterhours, you expect there to be drugs and such and maybe even questionable people. What you wouldn’t expect, purely based on the events they’ve hosted, is for them to have this attitude about rape and assault. But it turns out, this has long been an issue

@FHEDESH1 owns Drachaus and also a venue called The Veil in downtown LA. He hired a DJ who has raped multiple women in the Los Angeles area. The folks that know this, but respected the venue, came to him and asked about removing the rapist DJ.

Instead, they were told he’d be going forward with the DJ and that led to many other DJs and performers publicly stating that they will no longer associate with DracHaus.

Most of us have a deep investment in keeping our spaces alive and as safe as we can make them. Fhedesh is correct to say we should all be risk aware but…

What he’s missing is being risk aware is different from patronizing a space where a known rapist roams feels and women are encouraged to be kinky.

This DJ found his victims at his events and that was why people wanted him removed.

Unfortunately we rely a lot of self policing within these spaces and it is often insufficient. We try to handle these things internally as to not involve authorities and a cornerstone of that is actively removing predators from our spaces.

Instead, he gave one a job.

And THAT is why people withdrew support, not because they cant handle the darkness. Not because they’re not edgy enough. Not because they’re normies, but because we don’t want to give a rapist our money and our ears and everyone who does should be ashamed.

This post was actually a reshare from a user named Guillotine_productions. The owner agreed with what this person, who considers himself “old school” was saying. The clear attitude here is victims should remain silent and accept that it is their fault for going to a dark place.

You’ll notice that when Fhedesh reposted it, he added a line about bashing someone’s jaw in if they went to the cops.

But years ago when someone presented him with information about a predator he had been working with, he said the following:

To my knowledge, there is not a concerted effort to get the club shut down. Years ago, people called him out, but people like myself who have been regulars at the venue had never heard of these issues until now.

As you can imagine, the fallout from this post was pretty intense. They blocked me along with other people who were trying to make it clear what the issues were. And that brings us right back to this issue.

They had the option to properly respond to the information they received by removing the DJ who by the way came out and admitted to what he did. People are withdrawing their support because something as simple as that in a city with so many other DJs was met with resistance.

So they set up a situation where the victims of the people that he hires no longer feel safe or welcomed within the space and this is the exact issue I’ve seen replicated within both the goth and BDSM community is for far too long.

To be clear, as someone who is a regular at goth and bdsm events, I know that many predators who have been removed from our scenes have found comfort at Drac. Up to this point I assumed they didn’t have the information. I’ve since learned they have it, but they don’t care.

Today Fhedesh made these posts, which are full of BS as well

Drac is not promoted as a safe space but it is colloquially understood as one. For us it was a place in the city to go after the goth club and still wear our revealing clothes and socialize. His previous post basically said we were “asking for it”.

We are not “irate” over something small. Within a few days, DracHaus insinuated that IF a woman was harmed in their space, it’s their fault for being there. That is going to turn off most of us in the scene who care for women

If you’re a regular at Drac: I’ve been going to Drac since the screaming baby was on the horse in the bathroom. If you’ve been there you know what I mean.

The owner absolutely does not literally check everyone new at the door. They also do not remember you. I’ve been a “member” since that was a thing. They never remember me. That always felt like a red flag. They predominately care about money and not the scene.

I’ve mostly seen the owner yell at people, usually young men for trying to just walk right into the club without paying. Understandable, but that is the limit of their security. One guy at the door stopping people from getting in for free

Drac has always struck me as a very money hungry space. I knew a lot of the promoters, vendors, kink performers and patrons, but they never made an effort to check in on me or even say hello. So unless he was always having an off day when I was there this has never been a pattern

Fhedesh is often running around the club fiddling with DJ equipment or hiding in the back office. He could be more perceptive than he seems, but you definitely do not get that impression and regulars will acknowledge that.

Continuing….

He does not get to say that on one hand he is deeply invested in keeping the space safe and also doesn’t care if it is. It’s a large venue that is often packed or very very empty. I can see how he could believe he sees all at some events but def not all.

For most events, be trusts organizers to monitor the space and sometimes that works but I’ll be honest… Drac is often the space where parties that were kicked out for being shitty or sketchy end up finding a home.

For example, once a very popular kink/swing event decided that they would add a new rule where they would charge single trans women the same price they charge single men. That new rule got them removed from a popular dungeon and they reopened the event…at Drac.

I am not unfamiliar with Drac and I am not unfamiliar with edgy and dark places. I am not a poser or a “scenester” this is my lifestyle and most of us who live this will not patronize a venue with this attitude because it conflates what we do with predatory and harmful behavior.

What made me laugh about this was all they’re going to get now…is posers.
Most of us in the scene care so much about consent that we would not come close to arguing that someone gives up consent just because they are in a certain space.

What bothered me about this was that I know they’re going to attract a lot of new people who don’t know any better. They’re gonna hear him say people who dislike this shit are overly sensitive posers and think part of BDSM is stomaching and tolerating harm.

That is not the impression I want people to have of the scene and it becomes hard to argue against it when we do not stand up against it.

I am only using my platform to share this publicly because trying to speak internally about this only leads to suppression. They blocked me and they’ve blocked most people trying to inform others about this so here we are.

If you’re in the LA scene please stay away from this place. If you are an alternative event organizer, please do not host with Drac. Do not normalize this place as part of the scene. The only cred the space ever had was it’s patrons. We make it.

Oh and I know people feel differently about this but one thing that also came out of this is that the owner is a very loud and proud conservative Trump supporter so if you’re not a fan of giving folks like that money, that’s another reason not to patronize

Also what really bothers me about all of this if it’s completely clout driven. Protecting your patrons from rape should be your primary concern for community building in this space. That goes out the window because of money. We are not the posers, this dude is.

UPDATE: One of the victims had to out herself to the venue and show proof of her rape and Drac has finally decided to let the DJ go. I’m glad they finally made the right decision. I am frustrated that this had to happen for it to make it so.

We try to keep our spaces safe by policing them ourselves. The community would not have reacted how they did if we did not know this was a thing that happened. Most of us are not invested in petty clout politics. We just want to protect ourselves and freely express ourselves.

Unfortunately, conversations like this are lost on people who really think the only reason we would boycott a space is because of petty highschool drama and over sensitive cancel culture. Nah, we are just tired of predators in the scene.

I can respect that they needed to gather information and wanted to wait to make the right decision based on truth but in the meanwhile, they told everyone that women should not expect to be safe there. That’s why I made this thread and stand by it.

I am tired of newbies going somewhere and having their entire experience with the goth or bdsm community being some predator harming them and saying “what did you expect”? They suppressed my private conversations and warning so I made it public. I wouldn’t trust this venue.

I also want to make a correction here:

Apparently. What is meant by Fhedesh’s addition is that he is willing to punch out an abusive person in his space. Hopefully you can understand how him hiring a rapist did not allow that to register