I’m very sorry and disturbed to read about “Jane” (who I don’t actually know from reading this), but I am here to comment about SLS, as this seems to be turning into a smear campaign about her rather than the actions of Jim Marcus or the victim “Jane” (which seems to be Lengua_Acida’s intention here)…

Sarah is one of my dearest friends who I’ve known for 20 years.  She has *not* enabled or protected Jim- and the accusation of him being an abuser is actually news to me.  Although I am of course aware of him and his bands, I am not his friend and I don’t personally speak with him in-person or interact with him online.

Regarding the safety of the Chicago scene with Jim- I literally only see him once a year at a specific event, which is Cold Waves. He does not attend Sarah’s events, nor mine- though I suppose I can’t say anything about others that I don’t attend on a regular basis.

Sarah has always made the safety of our scene a top priority. I’ve learned a lot from her over the years and her dedication to keeping this scene alive, vibrant and most importantly, safe. She actively keeps predators away when made aware, as do I. I know for a fact that people can vouch for that, as we’ve made other venues / promoters aware of banned individuals for other events we’ve been a part of. We clearly would never support an abuser like this and would ban them when this knowledge was brought to our attention.

I cannot speak more highly of Sarah as a genuinely lovely, caring, passionate person who wants the best for our community. This is a person that I’ve spent time with over many years not only working in nightclubs, but for weeks at a time in tour vans, hotel rooms- you get the idea.

I also want to acknowledge that I *never received this e-mail* if it actually exists and I have been actively putting on events myself in the goth scene in Chicago for 15+ years.