Just when you thought the Rachel Dolezal story couldn't get any weirder, surprise! The latest opens up a whole new chapter of WTF. Dolezal's brother, Joshua, is facing sex abuse charges. He is accused of sexually abusing a female sibling through her childhood. And guess where those accusations came from?
Rachel's mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, says they originated with Rachel. And she vehemently denies the charges. "That is all a malicious false lie," she told People magazine. "[Rachel] is the one who initiated it. We know it is not true."
Lord have mercy, do you even want to know more at this point? Reading through the details of this sexual abuse case gives me a severe case of the tireds, but here goes:
1. The charges were brought to the police in 2013.
2. The charges were initiated because Joshua Dolezal had a one-year-old daughter, and the victim said she didn't want him to abuse her, too.
3. The victim, who is now 20, told police that starting from when she was about six her brother (who is 19 years older) made her undress in front of him and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
4. The victim says she reported the abuse to Ruthanne, but that the mother did not believe her and told her to "stop telling lies."
5. The victim also says Joshua threatened her, saying, "Don't tell anyone or I'll hurt you."
6. The alleged abuse supposedly ended when Joshua returned to college.
7. Ruthanne says the victim suffers from an attachment disorder that keeps her from bonding with parents or caregivers. She says the victim had aligned herself with Rachel, with compounded the family conflicts.
8. Another brother, Ezra, also says the accusations are false -- and that they were retaliation against Josh for calling Rachel out on some other trouble she was starting in the family.
9. And that trouble would be that time she tried to sue her parents for custody of another of their adopted children, Isaiah.
10. The case is being investigated by various case workers and a trial is set for August.
11. Rachel says the real reason why her parents came forward was because of this sex abuse case. Ruthanne denies this.
Oh this family. Where to even begin? Let's start with what a serious accusation this is to make, sexual abuse. That's heavy! And anyone who makes a false claim is doing a grave disservice to all the REAL victims of sexual abuse. You are hurting their credibility.
But thanks to Rachel's involvement those charges are suspect by association. Dolezal has discredited herself in so many other ways you can't take anything she says seriously.
Just today Dolezal was saying she identifies as black even after her biological parents revealed themselves in all their whiteness. And no, this isn't like being transgender. As Meredith Talusan put it in The Guardian, "The fundamental difference between Dolezal’s actions and trans people’s is that her decision to identify as black was an active choice, whereas transgender people’s decision to transition is almost always involuntary."
What if the victim's accusations are true? Because that's still a possibility. And if they are, Rachel can't be relied on as a reliable witness because of her loosey-goosey relationship with the truth. What a sad mess this is.
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[/code]Do you think it's possible that the sexual abuse claims are true, or do you think this is another fabrication from Dolezal?
Image via Today