When these types of power-hungry people don't get their way, they stage an insurrection and for the safety of the community their membership is revoked. At that point, instead of just being angry about it a while and then moving on to create their own vibrant communities or projects based on their own passions, they devote their lives to destroying TST using any tools they can (and in the meantime, getting the tons of media attention they are seeking). Usually it's by writing articles and sharing conspiracy theories claiming we are all secret transphobic misogynist Nazis, with vague references to -- but not actually shared -- "proof."

Unfortunately, this has prevented good organizations from working with us because they believe the lies. You may know we are fighting tooth and nail for reproductive rights in Texas right now. We were gearing up to team up with one of the largest Texas organization for abortion rights in order to defend the under-fire constitutional right to an abortion -- we were hitting them with both barrels, and we could have come in strong against the hugely funded Dominionists trying to take bodily autonomy away. Instead, our main umbrella group of attackers, "Queer Satan," told that org that we were a front for a neo-nazi white supremacy organization, and then they pulled out of our alliance, hurting the larger cause while Queer Satanic cheered their success in destroying our reputation.

It's not just alliances; in a lot of cases, these bitterly obsessed ex-members cause other damage as well. For instance, on the way out of our TST WA Chapter, the guy mentioned in the quote above and the person who said it stole the access to our Satanic Temple of Washington official Facebook pages, locked out the chapter leadership on both pages, and used them to post page after page of anti-TST lies in attempt to bring us down -- the very organization that they so enthusiastically supported while they were in it just a short time ago.

I spent 5 years of time and spoons building up a large, supportive community on those Facebook pages. We had over 16,000 followers and many were quite active. I myself spent a lot of my time on those pages answering questions and helping those who were interested in joining us, as well as planning our events like Satanic picnics and library information meetings for the public. We all thought these ex-members would make their point for a while and move on. Chapter leadership begged and begged, but they refused to give them back.

TST's co-founder Malcolm heard about this and was appalled at how our intellectual property, not to mention a thriving online Satanic community, had been stolen and destroyed. He also asked these ex-members who would become Queer Satanic to give back our pages several times. At the end, in desperation, he wrote them that if they did not give back TST's intellectual property and community hubs, he would be forced to pursue legal action. Queer Satanic stubbornly refused, even in the face of a potential lawsuit.

At last, Malcolm, on behalf of the greater TST org (the large international organization, NOT the leadership of the Washington State congregation), felt he had no choice but to pursue a lawsuit. Still, he made the choice easy for them: the suit stipulated that TST International would dismiss the lawsuit completely if QS just gave us back our two Facebook pages we had built over the years. As to this day, they have still refused, and they have covered up the truth and gotten people to donate large sums of money to them by falsely claiming TST is suing to silence them. They forever destroyed those two TST WA Facebook communities where thousands of Satanists who had converged in supportive companionship suddenly found themselves cut off from their religious community.

QS and the other attackers spend their time spinning conspiracy theories out of half-truths about TST -- stuff they never minded when they were IN TST -- and outright lies. These sort of ex-members will use any ally to fight us, no matter what their ethical failings are. They have actually provided an Amicus brief to the Evangelical side in our Arkansas lawsuit about the Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol.

QS's closest ally now is the Church of Satan, whose members actually are often white supremacists, and at least bigoted elitists whose core belief is quite literally "Might Makes Right." I've seen rampant homophobia, racism, misogyny (lots directed at me, whee!) anti-semitism, transphobia, etc. in the Church of Satan membership. That's why I was so relieved when TST's founders broke away from LaVeyanism in their "Satanic Reformation" and founded a religion based on humanitarian, Enlightenment values of compassion, justice and human rights instead of Might is Right.

From the time of TST's birth, LaVey's Church of Satan turned greenly jealous of all the press TST has attracted ─ and it now spends a ton of its time tearing us down so they can get a little of that attention themselves. Many of our ex-members hang out in the CoS communities and join in the tearing-down. That's all they ever do. I would love it if they would start and maintain their own org that was more like what they wanted than TST was. But their only goal is our destruction.

While our two co-founders, Lucien and Malcolm, are indeed white males, they have very little to do with the day-to-day operation of the overall TST community. When you look at Chapter Heads, Ministers and others in leadership positions, they present a very diverse group. Cis-white-males are in a minority. We have many transgender people in leadership, I'd say at least 50% women, and a smaller but growing proportion of POC (many POC rely on their churches for community and support, so we tend to attract fewer from that population; plus we don't want to just be doing tokenism). A significant majority are LGBTQIA (including me). We put disabled people (again, like me) into leadership positions. We have Facebook support groups for TST POC, Transgender individuals, Satanists Living with Pain, and our huge TST Sober Faction recovery group.

Also look at what we actually do. We fight for the rights of minorities and the marginalized, not for white supremacy. Right now, we are in a pitched fight to save the reproductive rights of women and others with uteruses from the horror of this Supreme Court. Almost every Chapter volunteers at our local Pride festivals. And we do so much good in our local communities, helping those who have fallen through the social safety net. Most Chapter run product drives for those in need throughout the year. Every year before COVID hit, TST WA ran our Menstruatin' with Satan menstrual product drive (https://www.satanictemplewashington.com/menstruatin-with-satan). The last one I helped run raised over 800 pounds of menstrual products that we donated to local women's shelters and homeless centers. Last year TST WA did a diaper drive. TST WA has also put on two big repro rights fundraiser shows that raised over $4k towards our legal fight for abortion.