There Are No Sides When It Comes to Sexual Assault
If you only condemn sexual assault when the perpetrator is on the other team, you don't actually believe it's wrong. You believe it's a weapon.
That's a hard sentence to read. It's meant to be. Because it describes something that happens constantly across the political spectrum — and it has to stop.
The Selective Outrage Problem
Progressive politics is built on a foundation of believing people. Believing survivors. Believing that power structures have historically protected perpetrators and silenced victims. That foundation doesn't get to be conditional.
When a conservative politician faces credible allegations of sexual assault or misconduct, the progressive response is typically swift and clear: believe the accuser, demand accountability, call for resignation. That response is correct.
But when the same allegations emerge against a progressive figure — a beloved politician, an activist, a media personality, a community organizer — the response too often gets complicated. Suddenly there are qualifiers. Context. Political stakes. "We can't afford to lose this seat." "Think about what happens if the other side wins." "This isn't the right time."
There is never a right time to protect a predator. Not even when the math feels unfavorable.
"The movement that fights hardest for survivors cannot afford to be the movement that looks the other way when the perpetrator is one of its own."
What Accountability Without Exceptions Actually Looks Like
Accountability without exceptions is exactly what it sounds like. It means the standard doesn't change based on who's being held to it.
It means that when a progressive politician faces credible allegations, the response from their own party is the same as it would be if they were on the opposing side. It means that protecting a seat in Congress, a position of influence, or a cause you believe in is never a reason to dismiss or delay accountability for someone who has caused harm.
It also means being honest about the pattern. Sexual assault and misconduct are not partisan issues — they are power issues. They happen wherever power is concentrated and accountability is weak. Political parties, religious institutions, corporate boardrooms, activist organizations — no structure is immune. Pretending otherwise isn't progressive. It's naive at best and complicit at worst.
Why This Matters for Businesses Too
Dark Yarn was built around the idea that the values you hold have to show up in how you actually operate — not just in what you say. That principle applies here too.
Businesses, especially those that identify as progressive or values-driven, have a responsibility to hold themselves and their communities to the same standards they demand of others. That means zero tolerance for sexual misconduct within your own organizations. It means not platforming, partnering with, or financially benefiting from individuals who have credible misconduct allegations against them — regardless of their politics, their influence, or how much you agree with their message.
Economic power is social power. When businesses choose who to platform, partner with, and profit alongside, they are making a statement about what they stand for. A brand that talks about equality and dignity while quietly ignoring misconduct within its own orbit is not living its values. It is performing them.
The Courage to Be Consistent
Consistency is uncomfortable. It costs something. It means you will occasionally have to condemn someone you admire, distance yourself from someone whose work you value, or take a position that doesn't serve your immediate political interests.
That discomfort is the point. Integrity that only holds when it's easy isn't integrity. It's strategy.
The communities Dark Yarn was built to serve — LGBTQ+ people, activists, politically engaged people who understand what's at stake right now — deserve better than conditional accountability. They deserve a movement and a culture that actually believes what it says it believes.
"Believing survivors is not a partisan position. It is a human one. And it has to apply to everyone."
What We're Asking
We're not asking for political purity. We're asking for consistency. Call it out when it's on the right. Call it out when it's on the left. Call it out in your own organization, your own community, your own circle.
The people working hardest to protect survivors and dismantle systems of power cannot be the same people who make exceptions when it's inconvenient. That contradiction undermines everything.
Dark Yarn exists to prove that values-driven commerce is possible. Part of that means saying things clearly, even when they're uncomfortable. This is one of them.
Declare yourself — in what you wear, in what you fund, and in what you refuse to look away from. darkyarn.com