On accusations against skeptical leaders

While I was in France, I lost internet entirely for a week, and then this stuff happened.  Short version: there was a cascade of accusations against several skeptical leaders for sexual harrassment, assault, and rape.  People named include Ben Radford, Lawrence Krauss, and Michael Shermer.

I don't have much to say about this, just an expression of shock.

I have a lot of respect for Michael Shermer, despite a few political differences.  I first got excited about skepticism through reading his columns.  I have an autographed copy of his book, Why People Believe Weird Things.  I don't want to think so poorly of him.  But yeah... I can't let my respect for Shermer bias my conclusions of his sexual conduct.

Sometimes I think the reason that sexual harrassment and assault inspire such high emotions is not so much because of the sexual aspect, but because it occurs between friends.  If Shermer were instead accused of stealing millions by wire fraud (as happened with Brian Dunning), I would lose respect for him, but I could still keep that separate from his skeptical work.  But this is sexual assault and rape of people in the skeptical movement.  I don't know anything about the victims, but in a way those women are my friends, just as much as Shermer is a friend.  Why must friends be so awful to one another?