Thread by @felicia_hart13

So it's out now and I want to say my story in my own words. Andrew Torres didn't just make me "uncomfortable". I'd go so far as to say he harassed me. I multiple times told him to stop and he always brought the conversation back to a sexual nature,
religionnews.com/2023/02/01/ame…

and even put pressure on me to go to his hotel room when he was in Salt Lake. Why didn't I cut him off? Lots of reasons. I guess I'll start from the beginning.

I messaged Andrew in 2017 to invite him on @UtahOutcasts , the show I'm still on. While he was on the show he asked me

on a date. In that way that reads like it's-a-joke-unless-you're-into-it way. After the show he again brought up a date and I turned him down and set a clear boundary. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. "Maybe he's just awkward" I told myself. But I'd made myself incredibly

clear. I was not interested in him beyond friendly.

We kept talking. Mostly Andrew would message me first. I'd get the impression that he was trying to flirt but I just tried to ignore it. I came to think Andrew was really my friend. That he cared about me as a person. I also

was afraid of what shutting him down too harshly would do to me and the show. I was trying to network to grow Utah Outcasts. Cutting off someone with such a relatively big show felt like I would be closing off a huge network to connect with.

In October of 2017 God Awful Movies

came to Salt Lake. I made plans to meet up with Andrew at the show. After the show everyone went to a bar. There was another guy I met there and him and I hit it off. He bought me a few drinks, Andrew introduced me to Noah. Eli liked my shoes. It was a good night. (Side note, me

and guy who bought me drinks ended up going on a date and it was a great time, but it wasn't meant to be more than that. No hard feelings to him if he sees this.) By the end of the night I was pretty toasty. Not blackout by any means but also not super clear. Andrew started

messaging me in the car to go back to the hotel. At the time I thought he meant an after after party. But reading back now it's very clear he was inviting me to his room. This was after I was very clear I wasn't interested in him and had spent all night flirting with someone else

He really put on the pressure to go to the hotel. Even once I was home he attempted to get me to come to the hotel.

Shortly after this I went out to Brooklyn to visit a friend and as I was telling Andrew about the trip he tried to get me to send nudes. He did it in a way that

Preserves plausible deniability, but I'm very confident I read it correctly. Let's be adults. We all know what that meant. I again set an incredibly clear boundary. Andrew proceeded to make a very long winded "apology" where he denied that's what he was implying and he was so

very sorry. He just felt soooo horrible that I would think he'd do anything like that.

"Okay," I thought. "That was an incredibly clear boundary. Surely he won't push it." But he did. Over and over he'd direct the conversation toward innuendo. And sometimes I'd try to ignore, or laugh it off, and other times I'd lay down the boundary AGAIN.

Somehow he always directed the conversation back to a sexual-ish nature. I started to get worn down. I stopped talking to him as much. Every time he'd message me I'd get a pit in my stomach. Eventually I talked to someone else who he also sexually mistreated. That's when I was

done. I never responded to him again.

I don't want to hear any bullshit about Andrew not knowing he was making people uncomfortable. With me it was made explicitly clear that he'd crossed the line multiple times.

I've been afraid of getting sued so I haven't gone public.

I made a post that Andrew was creepy. I didn't know what else to do. But then others reached out to me. They'd also gotten inappropriate messages from Andrew. At this point I know of 6 people who Andrew's crossed the line with and rumors of more.

Early in 2020 I told his business partner, Thomas Smith, that he'd made me uncomfortable. Thomas told me he'd been told of another instance from another woman which I can't include a screenshot of here.

It's not my story to tell. I've been informed that Puzzle in a Thunderstorm (God Awful Movies, Scathing Atheist, etc) are also aware of multiple instances with Andrew and none of them have cut ties with him at this time.

This is 6 years now of ongoing sexually predatory behavior from Andrew. He's targeted women and femmes. Also in several messages to me he'd throw in just casually sexist comments.

I told Andrew directly multiple times he'd violated my boundaries. Every time he'd apologize

profusely and then say I'd interpreted him wrong. And I'd doubt myself. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Eventually I gave up.

I've left all these communities. I felt unsafe and frankly unwelcome. People with power to do something have done nothing.

Coming forward is what I can do to try and protect people. Andrew Torres is unsafe. He's a predator. And someone needed to do something.

Thank you to @ETVPod for all your help in me and others being able to go public. Thank you Dell Onnerth for being a good friend through all of this. Thank you Charone Frankel for being so brave and diving in to going public as soon as you could.

And thank you to those who participated in this effort behind the scenes who I'm not going to name here. You've been amazing support and friends. This has been so incredibly stressful and exposing and frankly triggering.

I've had a couple panic attacks and worse PTSD symptoms than I've had in a couple years going through this. It's been really scary and hard. But I'm past fear. I'm angry. I'm done. This is out in the open now. Fuck it.