One of the vital common performers on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is now going through a number of accusations of sexual assault.Darius Jeremy “DJ” Pierce ― who performs in drag underneath the identify “Shangela” ― has been accused by 5 completely different folks of both sexually assaulting them or making an attempt to have intercourse with them once they had been too intoxicated to consent, based on Rolling Stone. Neither RuPaul nor the present are implicated in Rolling Stone’s report.One of many victims, a 27-year-old man named Helmer, mentioned he met Pierce, 42, seven years in the past when he was working at a Los Angeles bar and later connected on social media.However Helmer mentioned issues took a flip for the more severe throughout a “late dinner” in 2017 the place Pierce ordered a mojito for him. Helmer informed the Los Angeles Police that he wakened “fully bare on a mattress” and had “no recollection of the occasions that occurred after he drank” that cocktail.In keeping with the grievance Helmer filed with the LAPD, Pierce informed him that they’d intercourse collectively, and added, “There was one other man concerned that you simply introduced in.”When Helmer requested the opposite man’s identification, Pierce mentioned he didn’t know. “However you had been actually into it,” Pierce informed Helmer. Pierce’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, informed Rolling Stone that Helmer’s allegations had been “absurd” and claimed any intercourse between all three males was “consensual.”One other sufferer, Edward Ramirez mentioned Pierce allegedly “shoved me on the ground in a closet and tried to penetrate me” in 2018. He was 21 years outdated.“I’m very assured I used to be clear with my ‘no’s.’ I used to be declining advances,” Ramirez informed Rolling Stone. “He nonetheless saved making an attempt anyway.”Brettler additionally denied the allegation, saying there have been three individuals who might “attest that Mr. Pierce and Mr. Ramirez had been by no means alone collectively” on the evening in query.All 5 individuals who spoke to Rolling Stone about Pierce’s alleged crimes determine as queer and have both participated in drag exhibits or watched, based on the publication.All of them additionally admitted they feared going public due to the present anti-drag present local weather sweeping elements of the nation.“[Pierce is] an enormous spokesperson for a neighborhood through which they’ve damage fairly a couple of folks. I’d hope that folks take this sort of factor significantly,” mentioned Zein Checri, who accused Pierce of making an attempt to penetrate him with out consent in 2017 ― he was additionally 18. “It’s a massive reduction that, lastly, this dialog is beginning to occur.”The brand new expose comes about 10 months after a manufacturing assistant named Daniel McGarrigle accused Pierce of raping him, based on the Los Angeles Occasions.Though Pierce mentioned that he was “damage and disgusted” by the “completely unfaithful allegations,” he and McGarrigle reached a settlement in February.You’ll be able to learn the very intensive report right here.