Cw sexual harassment and sexual assault

My heart goes out to those survivors of Ben's actions and the victims of his ignorance of consent and abuse of power. His actions were unacceptable and I believe his remorse is genuine, so I hope his continued actions will be genuine.+ https://twitter.com/SwordsnFlowers/status/1279140213114015744

Full disclosure: as a friend of Ben and someone who believes in rehabilitation, I'm keeping in contact with him as he continues therapy and steps down from his positions of power in hopes that I can act as a positive force to encourage him to keep to rehabilitation.+

I am NOT forgiving his actions or saying those actions are acceptable. I am not standing by him as someone who thinks he is free of error. I just believe in rehabilitation and want him to change and stay on a path where he makes every effort to be better and make reparations.+

I understand some people will not understand how I can keep in touch with someone who has done terrible things, especially as a survivor, but I believe Ben is & has been taking actions to make amends for what he's done. Consider me his Jiminy Cricket, reminding him to be better.+

If he continues to offend, I absolutely will cut ties & I think he is very clear on the boundaries there. But I wanted to be honest that my continued contact is in hopes he can be rehabilitated, since I believe in that model. Again, this is not forgiveness. It's hope for change.

(Note that we are on opposite sides of the world so I can only be in contact & influence him via messaging, but I can at least try to be a positive influence in Ben's path. I don't know how long I will maintain it but I told him I would at least try to support him fixing things.)

I wanted to be honest about this but I know that is going to cause a rift with me and many people. I just don't know how I can speak about rehabilitation and preach that people can change and be angry over people abandoning me when I made mistakes and not at least try.

I'm leaving this thread up bc I wish I had the moral conviction to do what I think needs to be done for people to change for the better.

I've talked with Ben to say goodbye as we're cutting ties. I told him not to disappoint me again, hopefully he won't. I hoped I could help.