Ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez offers weak statement in response to rape allegations

Earlier this week, Marilyn Manson acted quickly and definitively in response to allegations of sexual assault against his longtime band member Twiggy Ramirez (né Jeordie White). In short: Last Friday, a fellow musician, Jack Off Jill singer Jessicka Addams, came forward to accuse White of sexual assault, describing the assault as the culmination of a pattern of physical and emotional abuse that occurred throughout her and White’s romantic relationship back in the ’90s. By Tuesday, Manson had fired White from the band, using his legal name to make it clear that he wasn’t fooling around:

Well, now White has issued a statement of his own reprinted in Rolling Stone, and it’s as noncommittal as Manson’s actions were definitive. “I have only recently been made aware of these allegations from over 20 years ago. I do not condone non-consensual sex of any kind,” it begins. Okay. And? “I will be taking some time to spend with my family and focus on maintaining my several years of sobriety,” White’s statement continues. “If I have caused anyone pain I apologize and truly regret it.” And that’s it.

Note that, in his statement, White doesn’t deny the allegations, but he doesn’t take responsibility for them, either. Nor does he apologize specifically to Addams, who has stated clearly and unambiguously that he hurt her. For instance, there’s the part of her lengthy Facebook post where Addams wrote: “He forced me on to the floor with his hand around my neck. I said NO. I said NO. I said it so loud enough, that [her roommate] Pete came rushing in from the other room to get him off of me. But I had been raped. I had been raped by somebody I thought I loved.” Nothing on that?