Since my last post, I have received several reports from women who have been subjected to violence within some kind of an O.T.O. context in the past. One of these women told me that she had been in touch with several other sisters who never reported their mistreatment, and saw no reason to now because their attackers were no longer active members. Others reported that when they attempted to discuss their troubles with their brothers and sisters, attempts were made to either ignore or excuse the bad behavior, occasionally offering such quotes as "There is no guilt" as if that were an excuse for assaulting someone. This is simply unacceptable.
I'd like to make a few things clear.
- Assault is something we, as a community, should not be tolerating or excusing.
- Assault is assault. It doesn't matter if the victim is the perpetrator's wife or husband. It doesn't matter if the victim is a non-member.
- Proportional self-defense against a credible and imminent physical threat of violence or non-consensual sexual conduct is not an unfraternal or "un-Thelemic" act. You have permission to resist, if you can.
- As a community, it reflects badly on ALL of us when one of our members physically attacks someone--especially if we do nothing and say nothing about it.
- Regret is not an excuse.
- In many cases, effective treatment and counseling is available for individuals who have trouble managing their anger issues--but such treatment will be of no use if the violent behavior is simply neglected.
- Inactive members forfeit all their membership rights and privileges, including the right to call themselves members; however, they can re-activate simply by paying twice their last dues rate--unless they are on bad report. It is possible to place non-members and inactive members on bad report, for cause, to prevent them from re-activating. If there is such cause, we need to know about it. Please tell us.
- U.S.G.L. has in-house counseling resources that are available to members on a limited basis who have been victims of assault, should they desire to use them. The Ombudsman can make the necessary referrals. I have had several individuals volunteer over the last few days to help provide such resources. If you would like to volunteer to help with this, please write to the Volunteer Coordinator (volunteers [at] oto-usa.org).
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