RuPaul's Drag Race alum Shangela accused of multiple sexual assaults

Shangela—one of the most recognizable drag performers in the world, who has appeared on multiple seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race and a recent season of Dancing With The Stars, as well as a number of films and television shows like A Star Is Born, Broad City, and Station 19—has been accused of sexual assault by multiple people. These allegations come from a new, detailed report by Rolling Stone, which picked up reporting previously initiated by BuzzFeed News in 2022 before the outlet was shuttered the following year.

For their piece, RS consulted court documents and spoke to five different sources who all detail non-consensual experiences they had with the drag performer—legal name Darius Jeremy (“DJ”) Pierce—in the time-frame of 2012 to 2018 when they were between the ages of 18 and 23 and he was significantly older. These allegations follow another, now-settled civil suit initially reported by the Los Angeles Times last May, in which a production assistant named Daniel McGarrigle on Pierce’s HBO show We’re Here accused him of plying him with alcohol before “rubbing his penis against his buttocks, attempting to insert himself into his anus” while he was so drunk he threw up.

The stories told by the five new accusers all follow a similar pattern to McGarrigle’s. (At least two of them said they were inspired to come forward after reading the production assistant’s testimony.) All five identify as queer and say they were aware of Pierce’s celebrity status. Three said they were aspiring drag queens themselves. All five of them claim they were assaulted by Pierce after staying out late and drinking a lot, and one of them says it happened in the same sheets he had just thrown up in.

One accuser, identified simply as “Helmer,” says he met Pierce in 2017 at the Los Angeles bar where he worked. After the two went out and drank one night, Helmer says he woke up completely naked in a bed presumed to be Pierce’s with no memory of the events of the night before. Another, Edward Ramirez, says that Pierce “shoved me on the floor in a closet and tried to penetrate me” after they spent a night out drinking when he was 21. “I’m very confident I was clear with my ‘nos.’ I was declining advances,” he continued. While Pierce’s initial defense claimed that any further accusers were motivated by McGarrigle’s claim in an attempt to strengthen his civil suit, RS reports that Ramirez posted his complaints online in 2018, four years before the production assistant initially came forward.

The other accusers, Zein Checri, a man identified only as “Zachary,” and RoyLee Soliz all tell very similar stories of meeting Pierce at the club or a meet-and-greet and eventually waking up to find Pierce attempting to penetrate them. Pierce and his lawyers have thoroughly denied that any of these interactions were non-consensual, although the performer did admit to meeting with four of the accusers on the dates in question. Concerning the fifth, Pierce’s lawyer said that “Mr. Pierce has no recollection of meeting RoyLee Soliz, nor does he recognize that individual’s name.”

All five accusers say it took them a long time to process their alleged assault, and at least two did not go to authorities citing a lack of trust in the police. RS also reports that “nearly every source” they spoke to grappled with whether or not to come forward due to the current pressure of right-wing anti-drag bills, but all said they want “Pierce—not the queer community—to bear accountability for the allegations.” “[Pierce is] a huge spokesperson for a community in which they have hurt quite a few people. I would hope that people take this kind of thing seriously,” Checri added. “It is a big relief that, finally, this conversation is starting to happen.”

Reps for DJ Pierce did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s request for comment on this story.