1. Community Standard or Double Standard?
2. Women Who Want to Want
3. Swinging one's vows to the limit

 

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update Digest
December 9, 2009
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


To read NCSF Media Updates on a daily basis, visit our blog at: http://ncsf.wordpress.com

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US newspapers, magazines, and
selected websites containing significant mention of BDSM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and
topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate b or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes
the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these
topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.


Community Standard or Double Standard?
New York Times

Mr. Lambert's context was different, mostly because he is gay and his song "For Your Entertainment" is
graphically sexual, with intimations of sadomasochism ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/arts/television/26watch.html?_r=1


Women Who Want to Want
New York Times Magazine
by Dan Bergner

The section on deviant desires, to take one example, is denounced by advocates for alternative sexuality
as stigmatizing those whose lusts, no matter how unusual, are harmless, or those whose erotic play, no
matter how unsettling, is consensual. Should a man with a foot fetish be branded as mentally ill? Should
a woman who finds ecstasy in being elaborately bound and enduring denigration or pain? Should such
people be labeled with psychiatric diseases, though the rest of their lives have no serious dysfunction?
Until 1973, homosexuality was among the D.S.M.'s disorders, and critics of the present chapter point to
the condemnation the volume once inflicted on gay men and lesbians' condemnation that both reflected
and bolstered the prevailing cultural perspective by way of arguing that the current manual, the
D.S.M.-IV, is full of unfounded and damaging sexual judgments. Many on the panel, which probably won't,
in the end, do much in the way of deleting conditions, maintain that the chapter on sexuality and gender
identity doesn't brand people too readily with disease. They note that, aside from exceptions like
patients with pedophilia, only those who are distressed meet the threshold for diagnosis. In turn, the
critics respond that such distress stems not from within the individual but from the infliction of
societal standards, from the culture's disapproval and aversion and therefore, in part, from the D.S.M.
itself. This, they emphasize, was why the A.P.A. finally removed a last remnant of the homosexuality
diagnosis what was known as "ego-dystonic" homosexuality in 1987.

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29sex-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1


Swinging one's vows to the limit
Minnesota Daily

A simple Google search led me to Club H, a local swingers' organization in Minneapolis. When I called, I
was politely asked by the associate on the other ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://www.mndaily.com/2009/12/06/swinging-one%E2%80%99s-vows-limit

###

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF)

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is committed to creating a political, legal, and social
environment in the United States that advances the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms
of alternative sexual and relationship expression. NCSF advances the rights and advocates for consenting
adults in the BDSM-Leather-Fetish, swing, and polyamory communities. We pursue our vision through direct
services, education, advocacy, and outreach in conjunction with our partner organizations to directly
benefit these communities.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
media: (917) 848-6544
office: (410)539-4824
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ncsfreedom.org
www.twitter.com/ncsf
http://ncsf.wordpress.com

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update Digest
November 23, 2009
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


1. Lolita Wolf: The Kinky Lover
2. A Kink in the Campaign
3. Hello Pell? Itbs Me Mell, and I am Really Mixed Up About This Election Thing
4. Swingers arrested in Iran
5. Sex game beatings bring long prison term
6. Progress Through Education
7. Shackle your judgment: BDSM deserves respect
8. Playing with Desire: UNH students push sexual boundaries
9. Getting into the swing of things
10. Sex toy research causes a stir at Duke
11. Mate debate: Is monogamy realistic?

To read NCSF Media Updates on a daily basis, visit our blog at: http://ncsf.wordpress.com

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US newspapers, magazines, and
selected websites containing significant mention of BDSM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and
topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate b or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes
the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these
topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.


Lolita Wolf: The Kinky Lover
New York Times

For me, having found BDSM it's not just about sex. I find very fulfilling that I can educate people,
because it's something I needed. So many people have come to tell me that I made them feel 'not
guilty'...

To read this article, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html#/lolita_wolf


A Kink in the Campaign
Chicago Reader

But he says he raised $1800 at one leather party, and he pitched members of the Next Generation Chicago,
a pansexual BDSM group for the 18-34 set, ...

To read this article, go to:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/joe-laiacona-challenges-deb-mell-in-democratic-primary/Content?oid=1236242


Hello Pell? It's Me Mell, and I am Really Mixed Up About This Election Thing
Chicago Reader

He wrote for Gay Chicago magazine for 17 years, penning a "Leather Views" column under a pseudonym.
Expect the content of those articles to be a huge campaign issue. ...

To read this article, go to: http://www.cdobs.com/archive/featured/hello-pell-its-me-mell-and-i-am-
really-mixed-up-about-this-election-thing,92492


Swingers arrested in Iran
Straits Times
TEHERAN

IRAN'S moral police have arrested a dozen couples for engaging in illicit sexual acts, including
swapping of partners. Extra-marital sex is illegal in Iran where Islamic sharia law is the principal
source of legislation. If found guilty of adultery, those arrested in the crackdown face being stoned to
death. ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_457999.html


Sex game beatings bring long prison term
Hillsboro Argus
OregonLive.com

"If you know anything about (sadomasochism), both parties are getting pleasure," Knapp said. "I don't
believe it was sadomasochistic at all. ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/hillsboroargus/2009/11/sex_game_beatings_bring_long_p.html


Progress Through Education
Justice
Brandeis University

Transgender, polyamory, sadomasochism and asexuality are topics that still need to be introduced into
the dialogue. "There's no overt prejudice,...

To read the rest of this article, go to:

http://media.www.thejusticeonline.com/media/storage/paper573/news/2009/11/17/Features/Progress.Through.Education-3834004.shtml


Shackle your judgment: BDSM deserves respect
UNH The New Hampshire
Durham, NH

It is a little hard to imagine the person sitting next to you in class choosing to wear a diaper and
roll around like a baby, but BDSM is just as unique as ...

To read the rest of this article, go to: http://www.tnhonline.com/opinion/shackle-your-judgment-bdsm-
deserves-respect-1.898694


Playing with Desire: UNH students push sexual boundaries
UNH The New Hampshire
Durham, NH

Courtney Jane, or CJ, is the creator and coordinator of UNH's BDSM group; ... CJ, a grad student at UNH,
began exploring BDSM last January on her own, ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:

http://www.tnhonline.com/playing-with-desire-unh-students-push-sexual-boundaries-1.898361#5


Getting into the swing of things
Las Vegas Weekly

After a few minutes of trying to remember which men were emotionally committed to which women, I
remembered something more important: I was at a swingers ...

To read the rest of this article, go to: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/blogs/the-
playground/2009/nov/16/swingers/


Sex toy research causes a stir at Duke
News Observer
Durham, North Carolina

At Duke University, a school that likes to tout its cutting-edge research, a sex toy study being
conducted by a behavioral economist and student health workers has roused criticism. For much of
October, researchers recruited female Duke students to take part in a "sexually explicit" study on
Tupperware-style parties in which sex toys, not kitchenware, are the draw.

To read the rest of this article, go to: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/177501.html?
story_link=email_msg


Mate debate: Is monogamy realistic?
CNN

For some, even serial monogamy seems too restrictive. The 1970s introduced the concept of "open
marriage" in which couples stayed married but were free to date other people. More recently, polyamory b
the practice of having romantic relationships with multiple people at the same time with the full
knowledge and consent of all involved b has been getting a lot of attention. ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/28/monogamy.realistic.today/index.html


###

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF)

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is committed to creating a political, legal, and social
environment in the United States that advances the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms
of alternative sexual and relationship expression. NCSF advances the rights and advocates for consenting
adults in the BDSM-Leather-Fetish, swing, and polyamory communities. We pursue our vision through direct
services, education, advocacy, and outreach in conjunction with our partner organizations to directly
benefit these communities.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Media: 917-848-6544
Office: 410-539-4824
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ncsfreedom.org
www.twitter.com/ncsf
http://ncsf.wordpress.com

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom

Media Update Digest

October 28, 2009

1. In Defense of Extreme Pornography
2. Highlighting the blight of porn
3. New Swingers Club Raising Questions
4. Professor's lawsuit alleges cover-up, retaliation

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US newspapers, magazines, and
selected websites containing significant mention of BDSM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and
topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate b or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes
the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these
topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.


"In Defense of Extreme Pornography"
Reason Online
Los Angeles, CA

Had Zicari and Romano stuck to just rape and murder, with some R-rated nudity to complement artful
scenes of mutilation and dismemberment, as Hollywood does in movies like Hostel and House of 1000
Corpses, they couldbve avoided a lot of trouble. Likewise, had they focused on hardcore sex and kept the
violence and puke out of it.

Unfortunately, Romano and Zicari had the audacity to mix genres of entertainment that, while permissible
on their own, are apparently not allowed to be combined. And thus they managed to achieve what not even
John Waters ever accomplished: They were sent to prison for having bad taste. ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://sitemail.hostway.com/sitemail/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Freason.com%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2F27%2Fin-defense-of-extreme-porn


"Highlighting the Blight of Porn"
One News Now
Tupelo, MS

"[S]pecifically to get federal and state obscenity laws enforced," he states. "The white ribbon is
intended to be a symbol of community standards of decency ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://sitemail.hostway.com/sitemail/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.onenewsnow.com%2FCulture%2FDefault.aspx%3Fid%3D739554


New Swingers Club Raising Questions
WKRC TV
Cincinnati, OH

That business is a swingers club, an operation where people pay a fee to join and then can swap partners
for sex. Local 12's Rich Jaffe joins us now with a ...

To read the rest of this article, go to:
http://sitemail.hostway.com/sitemail/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.local12.com%2Fmostpopular%2Fstory%2FNew-Swingers-Club-Raising-Questions%2F6nq-scfzJE6GExFnoRZHgQ.cspx


Professor's lawsuit alleges cover-up, retaliation
KOB.com
Albuquerque, NM

Chavez posed on a sadomasochism website as "Mistress Jade" in sexually suggestive photos with at least
one of her graduate students. ...

To read the rest of this article go to:
http://sitemail.hostway.com/sitemail/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kob.com%2Farticle%2Fstories%2FS1200035.shtml%3Fcat%3D504

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update Digest
October 8, 2009
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


1. City spanks Power Exchange
2. Sex club spanked with lawsuit from patron injured during bondage play
3. The Student Sex Column Movement
4. Councilmembers hear community outrage over Eagle raid
5. Social group visits board

To read NCSF Media Updates on a daily basis, visit our blog at: http://ncsf.wordpress.com

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US newspapers, magazines, and
selected websites containing significant mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and
topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes
the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these
topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.


CITY SPANKS POWER EXCHANGE
San Francisco Bay Guardian , San Francisco, CA

Power Exchange isn't just a venerable sex club, it's a popular gathering place for the transgender and
BDSM communities and a hub for unfettered sexual fun ...

To read this article, go to: http://www.sfbg.com/entry.phpentry_id=9253&catid=&volume_id=452&issue_id=453&volume_num=44&issue_num=01


SEX CLUB SPANKED WITH LAWSUIT FROM PATRON INJURED DURING BONDAGE PLAY
SF Weekly b San Francisco, CA

A devotee of San Francisco's BDSM scene, Nevraumont was attending the Power Exchange sex club, then
located on Otis Street; her male companion had strung ...

To read this article, go to:

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-10-07/news/sex-club-spanked-with-lawsuit-from-patron-injured-during-bondage-play/


THE STUDENT SEX COLUMN MOVEMENT
The Nation :New York, NY

They can decide to thoughtfully address taboo topics like BDSM, fetishism and orgies, as Virginia
Dalloway did in her Free Press column, ...

To read this article go to: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091012/dibranco


COUNCILMEMBERS HEAR COMMUNITY OUTRAGE OVER EAGLE RAID
Creative Loafing

by Thomas Wheatley

Members of Atlanta's gay community came to City Hall Tuesday afternoon to voice
outrage over and demand answers about the controversial Sept. 10 police raid at the Atlanta Eagle ...

To read this article, go to:

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2009/09/16/councilmembers-hear-community-outrage-over-atlanta-eagle-raid


SOCIAL GROUP VISITS BOARD
Glens Falls Post-Star

By Dayelin Roman Thurman.

 

After the leader of a so-called swingers club said club members are normal people, residents at Tuesday night's Town Board ...

To read this article, go to:
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2009/09/15/news/local/doc4ab055cbcf4f2839161663.txt


THE BIG MEETING IN THURMAN
Glens Falls Post-Star

Thurman Supervisor Red Pitkin paid me a visit this week and invited me to attend Tuesday night's town
board meeting. I was happy to oblige. ...

To read this article, go to: http://www.poststar.com/blogs/?p=30964&cat=49


###

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF)

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is committed to creating a political, legal, and social
environment in the United States that advances the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms
of alternative sexual and relationship expression. NCSF advances the rights and advocates for consenting
adults in the SM-Leather-Fetish, swing, and polyamory communities. We pursue our vision through direct
services, education, advocacy, and outreach in conjunction with our partner organizations to directly
benefit these communities.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom

(410) 539-4824 (office)
(917) 848-6544 (media)

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ncsfreedom.org
www.twitter.com/ncsf
http://ncsf.wordpress.com

1. Real estate agents file $6-million suit over 'CSI' episode
2. Event Offers Sex Info, Activities, Free Condoms
3. How Rough Is Too Rough Between the Sheets?
4. Beyond Vanilla Sex
5. Outside the bedroom, BDSM practitioners can't take punishment

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update
May 24, 2009
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.



Real estate agents file $6-million suit over 'CSI' episode
by Harriet Ryan
The Los Angeles Times (CA)
May 23, 2009

When married real estate agents Scott and Melinda Tamkin read about an
episode of the hit crime drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" that
featured dirty-dealing, S&M-loving real estate agents named Scott and
Melinda Tamkin, they didn't need to consult a forensic expert for an
explanation.

A house sale involving the Tamkins and a "CSI" producer had fallen apart
four years before, and the producer was listed, in the same online
description, as the co-writer of the episode.

On Friday the Tamkins filed a $6-million defamation and invasion of
privacy suit against the producer, Sarah Goldfinger, saying she humiliated
them and cost them potential business "by creating from whole cloth
characters engaged in a reckless lifestyle of sexual bondage, pornography,
drunkenness, marital discord, depression, financial straits and possibly
even murder."

The couple contacted CBS after Scott Tamkin did an Internet search for his
name and discovered the "CSI" episode descriptions. The network tried to
remove some of the postings, including pages where references to kinky sex
ascribed to the fictional couple linked to pornography sites, said the
Tamkins' lawyer, Anthony Glassman.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-csi-realtors23-2009may23,0,964767.story
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Event Offers Sex Info, Activities, Free Condoms
by Jordanne Pascual
The Daily Nexus (University of California, Santa Barbara)
May 21, 2009

Dildos, vibrators, whips and handcuffs adorned the Student Resource
Building lawn yesterday for the annual UCSB Sex Affair, which cautions
students against unhealthy sexual practices.

Reaching its climax only once a year, the annual event is put on by Sex
and Relationship Peer Health Interns to provide students with information
on sexual health. Topics up for discussion ranged from available birth
control methods and information about STIs, to suggestions for making anal
sex work in a relationship.

Moreover, participants at the event were offered the chance to tickle
their fancies with kinky sex toys and S&M bondage gear and were quizzed on
the different sex organs.

Dulce Sotelo, a first-year undeclared student who partook in the event,
said she had fun experimenting with the various sex toys.

"[My] favorite table was the [Kink University Fetish Fellowship] table
because there is a lot of different toys that seem like it hurts but is
arousing", Sotelo said. "People are not too embarrassed and are willing to
answer questions and give us information on sex".

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dailynexus.com/article.php?a=19074
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or
comment at the bottom of the article (registration required)


How Rough Is Too Rough Between the Sheets?
by Judy McGuire (advice and opinion)
Seattle Weekly (WA)
May 19, 2009

[Q.] Dear Dategirl,

My girlfriend and I are starting to realize that she is a masochist, or at
least interested in very rough sex. We are both pretty open-minded people,
so experimentation in bed is not uncommon. However, in recent days, we
have talked about rougher sex. She seems very into the idea. I won't lie,
I can't help but feel turned on by her wanting to be fucked harder. But
I'm no sadist and feel totally lost when it comes to giving pain. She
clearly wants to be hit, but what does that mean? (Spankings are already
in my tool bag, FYI.) What are my limits? I tried asking her, but I get
the feeling that she doesn't know, and the act of talking it out and
planning it takes away from the whole point.

-Over My Head

[A.]

One thing I'm certain of is that good communication is generally the key
to great sex, but it's never as important as with BDSM. I mean, someone
could get hurt! Because I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to rough stuff,
I called in an expert to help you kids figure things out.

Lolita Wolf is an emeritus board member of the Eulenspiegel Society, and
has been an active member of the BDSM scene since you were in short pants.
Not only that, she's written two books - one on cock-and-ball play, in
case your girlfriend gets the urge to turn the tables. You can check out
her blog at www.leatheryenta.com.

Of your girlfriend, Wolf says, "Just liking rough sex by itself does not
make her a masochist. Not everyone gets off with gentle loving. Some of us
need a bit more stimulation."

Hear that? Don't be so quick to classify. But whether that stimulation
comes from nipple clamps or an inner-thigh flogging, what's clear is that
by not talking about what you expect from each other, you're asking for a
world of pain. (Not the kind that gets you off.) Wolf agreed, saying there
has to be an agreement between you two: "If they are doing resistance
play, then a formal safeword is a good idea. If she likes to resist and
say 'Stop! Stop!' but doesn't really mean it - and that can be very
exciting - then they need a word like 'red' or 'aardvark'...something that
makes it clear that the action has to stop."

Wolf understands your discomfort with inflicting pain. "All their lives
guys have been taught to not hit girls. But some women want to be
manhandled!" She suggests that you "remember that there is a difference
between hurt and harm." When you give your girlfriend what she's asking
for - even if it looks uncomfortable to you - you're making her happy.
Just be sure you don't cross the line and harm her while you're hurting
her. Capisce?

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-05-20/diversions/abc-s-of-bdsm/
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
or contact the editors, go to:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters


Beyond Vanilla Sex
by Jordan Osserman
The Dartmouth (Dartmouth College)
May 15, 2009

A few days ago, Dartlog (The Dartmouth Review's blog) pasted the text of
the mass e-mail advertising "Bondage 101", a rope-tying workshop organized
by a number of student groups on campus. Brian Nachbar '12, the author of
the blog post, wrote, "Note that the event is funded by [the Council on
Student Organizations]- I'll leave it to the reader to assess how
responsible a use of the College's money this is".

Having helped to organize the workshop, I was actually happy to see the
blog post - as they say, all publicity is good publicity, and I don't
doubt that Dartlog contributed to the enormous turnout Tuesday night.
Nevertheless, the workshop was only one part of a larger conversation
about sex that needs to happen on campus, and I'd like to contribute to
that by responding to criticisms like Nachbar's.

For starters, if Nachbar wants to curb excessive College spending, he'd do
better leaving the kinksters alone. Putting together the entire event -
paying for rope, publicity and the trainer's fee and lodging - cost just a
little over $400 in total.

To contrast this with another College-sponsored event, consider the
undergraduate advisor program: Dartmouth spends thousands upon thousands
of dollars each year to feed, house and train UGAs - many of whom are
returning for a second year in the program - in a weeklong training
program that many argue could be condensed into a day or two.

But I know that's not what Nachbar is really getting at. Why, he wonders,
should the College even spend a dime on an event like the one I helped
organize? The answer is simple: because our student body has a
pathetically low IQ about sex and sexuality, and it's about time Dartmouth
allocates some student activities funds to educate a campus that is,
paradoxically, both hyper-sexualized and sexually clueless.

At its core, bondage is about playing with power - about dominance and
submission, pain and pleasure. As such, it can potentially be problematic
- the risk of abuse and harm is real, and should not be ignored. But, like
all sex, bondage can also be a source of liberating ecstasy.

Sex does not have to be egalitarian in order to be "acceptable". Power
dynamics and differentials will always exist within sex, and as sexual
beings, we owe it to ourselves to carefully explore how we want to utilize
power in our erotic lives. Bondage certainly is not the answer for
everyone, but for some, it can provide an opportunity to channel
experience with control and subordination into sexual satisfaction.

The key is for participants to know what they're doing and know what they
want. Tuesday night's workshop addressed a part of that - it taught
students some basic ways to tie their partners up with rope, while also
addressing important safety and consent issues.

Heterosexual students interested in practicing basic, vanilla sex don't
have to look very far for guidance - though it can be an awkward subject
for some, it's not particularly difficult to get a group of friends to
talk (or brag) about their sex lives. Beyond that, however, learning about
sex at Dartmouth can get a little tricky. A great deal of stigma and shame
surrounds gay sex, kinky sex and BDSM, and it's often only the brave who
are willing to own up to their non-normative sexual desires.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://thedartmouth.com/2009/05/15/opinion/osserman/
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Outside the bedroom, BDSM practitioners can't take punishment
by Matt Smith
SF Weekly (San Francisco, CA)
May 12, 2009

When pondering ... signs of American weakness, I used to say to myself:
"Thank goodness for sadomasochism porn enthusiasts." These brave heroes
are willing to be blindfolded, tied up, choked, hung by their pierced
nipples, smacked, pinched on their genitals with live battery clamps,
bludgeoned with chains and clubs, half-drowned, impaled with motorized
nightsticks - and come back begging for more. As long as America had these
hard-bitten souls among our ranks, I imagined, we'd dominate a submissive
world.

At least that's what I believed until April 21, day one of the Great San
Francisco S&M Whine-Fest, when seemingly tough-as-nails bondage and
discipline specialists became a squawking gaggle of unwilling victims.
Their supposed tyrant was a newspaper column that used the apparently
verboten term "torture porn" to describe performances such as videotaped
waterboarding.

"You are the one doing victimization here," the first of hundreds of
outraged Web commenters wrote. "We who live in San Francisco are proud of
our diversity, which includes [the] BDSM lifestyle."

The reaction splattered from Internet comments to angry columns on several
local blogs, a local TV news segment documenting the pornographers'
outrage, posters announcing an SF Weekly boycott, at least two T-shirts on
sale condemning SF Weekly, plus dozens of articles, essays, blog posts,
and other infuriated Internet flotsam demanding "accountability" for
supposedly "irresponsible journalism."

The column in question ["Whipped and Gagged," April 21] noted that local
S&M pornographer Kink.com had finagled nearly $50,000 in employee training
subsidies from the state government. After my inquiry, the state Employee
Training Panel halted the funding - which Kink.com employees had used to
learn to better produce and edit porn videos - because the agency didn't
previously know the nature of the company's business, and its rules
expressly discourage sponsoring training for pornographers. My column
parsed the question: Was it right for the government to halt the porn
subsidy? I quoted three pro-porn-subsidy people, one anti-porn-subsidy
person, and three law professors who discussed whether the government was
permitted to discriminate against pornographers.

The funny thing is, I don't really care if people do this kind of porn. I
have no aversion to pornography in general, and that's why I didn't
condemn it in the column.

But it was a legitimate - and funny - news story that a state agency was
paying to train S&M pornographers. I used the word "torture" in that story
because it's a realistic way to describe people being strapped to a table
and shocked on their genitals.

Judging from the response, a lot of people with the guts to withstand
clubs and electrode punishment have thin skin when it comes to tolerating
anything but the PC jargon term "BDSM." Even wimpier was a line of
critique that said I should not have revealed Kink.com's state subsidy
because agency officials' decision to rescind it "harmed the community."
It was as if any act that didn't adhere to an alternative lifestyle
community's party line was somehow an attack.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-05-13/news/unsafe-words/
To respond, write to: the author at
http://www.sfweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee/?to=306110
or the editors at
http://www.sfweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters



HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) is a national organization
committed to altering the political, legal, and social environment in the
U.S. in order to guarantee equal rights for consenting adults who practice
forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the
rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory
communities, who often face discrimination because of their sexual
expression.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
410-539-4824
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ncsfreedom.org

1. LLAMA SUTRA: BDSM, Roommate Crush
2. Sunrise Prostitution Sting Details Emerge
3. Absolute Domination: Mistress Absolute Whips Through L.A.
4. Whip Smart
5. Attorney for Lynn 'dominatrix' lashes out

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update
March 5, 2009
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.


LLAMA SUTRA: BDSM, Roommate Crush
by Dan Copulsky and Kat Corcoran
The Llama Ledger (Bard College at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington, MA)
March 4, 2009



[A] BDSM, often distinguished from "vanilla sex", is triple acronym that
stands for Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism
and Masochism. It is an umbrella term that includes a wide variety of
sexual activities that often overlap and can be practiced with a wide
range of intensity, some of which may be erotized rather than overtly
sexual. These activities usually take place within a defined "scene".

Bondage is the use of tying up, handcuffs, or other restraints. Discipline
is the use of rules and punishment, which can include physical pain,
humiliation, or loss of privileges. Dominance and submission is the
control of one party over another. Sadism is gratification from inflicting
pain or humiliation. Masochism is gratification from receiving pain or
humiliation.

BDSM usually involves unequal roles. Typically, those who are active and
in control are known as dominants, doms, tops, or masters and those who
are passive and controlled are known as submissives, subs, bottoms, or
slaves. Those who may take on both these roles are known as switches.

To keep activities safe, participants in BDSM use pre-negotiation of
scenes, safewords, and heightened knowledge of the body's and mind's
limits. Many measure activities against the yardstick of "Safe, Sane, and
Consensual" (SSC). Others hold a more permissive idea of "Risk-Aware
Consensual Kink" (RACK), believing that anything done between fully
informed consenting adults is acceptable.

[continued]

To read this entire article, click here.

To respond, write to the authors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Sunrise Prostitution Sting Details Emerge:
Police Report Finding Sex Toys, Whips Chains, And A Human Cage
by Carey Codd
WFOR-TV (Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Fl)
February 27, 2009

SUNRISE (CBS4) -- A month after CBS4 cameras watched Sunrise police bust
an alleged house of prostitution, we are learning the lurid details of the
sex acts that allegedly took place there.

The report details whipping and bondage and lists a number of items police
found in the home, like ropes, chains and even a human cage.

Sunrise Police arrested two women on January 28 -- Katherine Eby and Chu
Tang -- for prostitution. Timothy Moon was arrested for battery on a law
enforcement officer and failing to appear on a child neglect charge in
Missouri.

According to the report, the women enticed men to the home through an
online ad.

Katherine Eby told police the economy forced her into a life of
prostitution. She told police "she was a real estate agent and was unable
to earn a steady income from that profession due to current market
conditions."

An undercover officer pretended to be a customer and arrested Eby after
she began performing a sex act on him for $140.

While Eby was in a room with the officer, the officer heard strange noises
emanating from a nearby room. The report says Eby told the officer "Tang
was whipping" a man.

The report says Eby gave a cut of her earnings to Tang, who rented the
house with another woman for $1200 per month. The report says Sunrise
Police learned about the house from an anonymous person complaining about
the amount of men going in and out of the house several times a day.

As police officers led the suspects out of the home in handcuffs, nearby
residents cheered.

"They did a great job," the neighbor said who asked to remain anonymous.
"I don't want that scum here. Drags everybody's property values down."

...inside the house police found a plethora of sex items, including "an
assortment of various sex toys, dominatrix business cards, sex videos,
assortment of condoms with money, restraining furniture, human cage,
ropes, chains, whips, paddles...."

The report details one man they found in the home, naked and bound by rope
to the frame of a table.

Chu Tang told detectives she and Moon operated a "sex content web site."
She said they filmed several movies for the website at the house.

[continued]

To read this entire article, click here.

To respond, write to: the reporter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the editors
at http://cbs4.com/contact


Absolute Domination: Mistress Absolute Whips Through L.A. to Teach Torture
for Pleasure at Coco de Mer on Melrose
by Gendy Alimurung
LA Weekly (Los Angeles, CA)
February 25, 2009

When the dominatrix was a little girl, she was constantly locking people
in cupboards. In the bathtub with her brother, she would instruct her
sibling to close his eyes and open his mouth.

"But you'll put the bar of soap in it", he'd say.

"No I won't. I promise".

"Aaah", went his mouth. In went the soap.

It's one of those classic dominatrix stories with a foregone conclusion.
Hannah, or Mistress Absolute to those with whom she is on whipping terms,
has a naturally domineering personality and has, in a sense, been
tormenting people her entire life. "When I told my mum what I was doing
for a living, she said, 'Oh, darling, you've always been like that'".

Mistress Absolute, who prefers her last name remain private, is lounging
on a leather chair in the dressing room before the "Art of Restraint"
class she teaches at the only U.S. branch of the elegant little sex shop
from London called Coco de Mer, a gilded, luxe place on Melrose with
naughty toys in Victorian cabinets where you can pick up $10,000 gold
vibrators and almost-as-expensive La Perla lingerie. Mistress Absolute is
herself an elegant, slinky person, with pale skin, red lips, long black
hair, and a fun-loving, puckish air, without which she would be scary. She
lives in London, but regularly includes Los Angeles on her teaching
circuit (she returns in April), and when her flight to LAX got in, a
female slave met her at the baggage carousel wearing fishnet tights, a
tailcoat, a leather chauffer's cap, a sign that said "Mistress Absolute"
and a huge grin.

"There's a school of thought that says you should start out submissive
before you become dominant", the dominatrix says as students begin to
arrive. "That if you don't know what it feels like, how can you do it to
someone else? I don't follow that thought. I don't have a set of balls,
but I torture balls".

She is 33 years old, and found her calling at 23. She went to a fetish
club for the first time on her own. She bought her first rubber dress,
strapped on her first pair of boots. "Within 15 minutes I was giving
somebody a caning. I was somewhere I fitted. Finally I had a name for how
I am".

These days, when people in session confess their desires, she sees a
weight come off their shoulders. "It's about being able to release a side
of somebody that they kept hidden, and not judging them. They tell me
about their fetish, and maybe it's something they haven't told their wife,
they haven't told their best friend, they aren't even sure they should be
telling me. So when they say to me 'I just love to be spat on or kicked
about. Is that normal?' I say, 'Well, define normal'".

[continued]

To read this entire article, click here.

To respond, click here or comment at bottom of the article


Whip Smart: A documentary explores the dark, kinky world of online BDSM
by Linnea Covington
New York Press (NY)
February 25, 2009

The girl looked like an amputee. Positioned on all fours atop tall, metal
pedestals, her eyes were wild as she moaned through a ball-gag. Short,
brown locks framed her face, and her white limbs were encased in
bright-yellow latex, binding the hand to the shoulder, the foot to the
thigh. She wore a matching corset under her dangling breasts. Artist

positions, crippled or beaten came to mind. But this girl was real. And
she was just a piece of the larger world of fetish from the now-defunct
website, Insex.com.

Started in 1997, Insex.com was a way for Brent Scott, aka Pd, to further
his erotic bondage art after leaving a teaching job at Carnegie Mellon.
His art showed vivid paintings of women in various BDSM positions - and
wasn't well-received among the community. Bondage had long been an
obsession for Scott from the time he was tortuously tickled into his first
orgasm as a child. He began to think of his fetishes as wrong because they
weren't socially acceptable, but through art, he found a way to live
them.The workings behind the website can now be seen in a new documentary,
Graphic Sexual Horror, which premiered as the highest rated film in Utah's
Slamdance Film Festival in mid-January and is included in the Cinekink
film fest this week. Two women direct the film: novelist Barbara Bell and
photographer Anna Lorentzon.

Both Lorentzon and Bell worked for Insex.com, never as models, but as a
photographer and screenwriter respectively. Lorentzon first met Scott at a
fetish store and later at a bondage demonstration. She reached out to him
coincidently on the same day he needed a photographer, so she joined the
team and stayed there for six years. Bell got into Insex.com through
Lorentzon and began writing short screenplays for his scenes. Both women
enjoyed their time there, but some of their encounters bothered them, like
Scott's pushiness when he wanted the models to "play" with him after their
set. Lorentzon said making this documentary became a way for her to
decompress everything she experienced in the studio.

As the two female directors explain in the film, Scott's fascination with
bondage isn't as unusual as one might think. Insex.com had 35,000 members
who paid $60 a month to sign on. "It was almost as if everybody was
waiting for this site to come up", Scott says in the documentary.

The interest Insex.com received, however, shouldn't be so surprising.
Scott put a lot of time and effort into creating scenes that were both
convincing and horribly graphic. He hired models at around $300-anhour to
be placed in shackles, in cages, tied up, whipped, dunked in water and
ball-gagged. He created leather masks, steel stilettos, cuffs and iron
casings. And for seven years he produced short films, live feeds and
images of pretty girls getting tortured.

While the documentary touches on the closing of Insex.com, the purpose is
to show a side of the business that the regular customer or sexually
stifled viewer never saw - what the girls actually thought of their work.
Near the beginning of the film, Scott explained that his purpose to being
there was to "give the girl an orgasm". There was a part in the movie
where a girl, tied to post, is whipped with a switch. She has large, red
welts over blackening bruises down her backside. After they stop filming,
the girl looks high and, with a gentle smile, explains to her questioner
that she felt "really good".

Lorentzon, the cinematographer, explained that the girl's reaction was due
to the adrenaline pulsating through her body. "When feeling enough pain,
the body produced endorphins and adrenaline, which makes you feel high",
says Lorentzon. "At that point, you don't feel the pain anymore. Not all
models were willing and able to go that far".

[continued]

To read this entire article, click here.

To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Attorney for Lynn 'dominatrix' lashes out
by Dan O'Brien
The Daily Item (Lynn, MA)
February 19, 2009

LYNN - The lawyer for a Lynn dominatrix arrested for sodomy and rape
lashed out at the victim and police Wednesday, saying Ariana Murrell's
boyfriend only filed cha-rges after she kicked him out of her house the
night before.

Attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp of Marblehead, who also represents Murrell
in a lawsuit against the Lynn Police Department that is pending in U.S.
District Court, says the 46-year-old alleged victim is a bipolar, illegal
immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was allowed to leave Murrell's
home in the three years he's lived there.

Murrell, 40, even bought the victim a plane ticket to the Dominican
Republic a few months ago but he declined to accept it, said the attorney,
who forwarded The Item an electronic copy of the plane ticket for a flight
that departed from Boston on Jan. 20.

Now, Whitfield Sharp says Murrell is "humiliated" and lost custody of her
two grandchildren Wednesday only 14 days after they were awarded to her by
Judge Nelson Dillday of the Salem Probate Court.

In addition, Whitfield Sharp provided copies of court records showing
Murrell has a pending assault and battery case against the victim after he
allegedly attacked her and a handyman inside her 35 Baltimore St. home in
2007. Murrell filed a separate police report against the victim after he
was allegedly caught on video stealing Murrell's credit cards, which were
later used fraudulently, from her pocketbook.

"He is not a reliable source," she said. "The night before he went to the
police Ariana said she intended to be a witness against him... She told
him to get out of the house." Police arrested Murrell on Monday at her
workplace, a Lewis Street tax preparation business, and charged her with
sodomy, rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and
battery.

The victim says, among other allegations, that Murrell sodomized him when
he didn't agree to photograph himself naked to post on the Internet. She
also allegedly forced him to wear costumes and participate in bondage
sessions with other men.

Murrell filed trespassing charges against city workers in June after when
they tried to impose a cease and desist order because she was building an
illegal room on her house. The victim tells police the room was being
turned into a dungeon, according to police reports.

[continued]

To read this entire article,  click here.

To respond, click here, or comment at the bottom of the article



HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

1. An Interview With A Real Life NYU Dominatrix
2. Modern Sex: Power-Play 101
3. Bloggers Strike Back over KOMO's Sexphobic Smear
4. Behave! Toeing the legal line with a dominatrix
5. Rape or consent to sex?

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media  Update
December 1, 2008
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.



An Interview With A Real Life NYU Dominatrix
by Jessica Roy
NYU Local (NY)
December 1, 2008

Some people spend hours at shitty work-study jobs pretending to look busy
while actually browsing Facebook, but one NYU student - who goes by the
name Mistress Ava - wears leather, humiliates people and gets paid for it.
Here's what she had to say about working as a dominatrix this summer.

JESSICA: What made you decide to work as a dominatrix?

AVA: I've always considered myself sexually open and so when, several
summers ago, I found myself living with a seemingly normal girl who worked
in this line of business, I was quick to become fascinated. I asked a lot
of questions and wasn't freaked out by any of it and thus my curiosity was
piqued. When I came back to NYC, I started making a few bucks here and
there off Craigslist and when classes ended and I was without a job, I
made the decision to apply to dungeons and make it official.

J: How easy was it to break into the business?

A: It was rather easy because I fit the role, but emotionally it was
incredibly taxing. First I had to be sure that, with every possible tool
of the trade suddenly at my whim, I was really comfortable with what could
possibly happen and then, when I started and I was actually okay with it,
I had to really look into myself and figure out what the hell was wrong
with me that I wasn't freaked out. Sure, I got a great job right away, but
it wasn't easy on my demeanor.

J: What kind of things did your job entail?

A: One of the first things I did was sit down and write out my bio and a
list of do's and dont's. According to my boss, I had a very open mind but
there were a lot of things I wouldn't do because I found them sexual. My
do's were all things that, though I might do in my private life, I knew I
could mentally disconnect from and find completely un-erotic. My dont's
were those things that were too close to actual sex for me not to see them
that way. For instance, anything involving penetration on a male. There is
no sex involved whatsoever but they can ask for strap-on play and that was
never on the menu with me. I also avoided any touching with my hands
because that felt a bit too "real sex" for me. A lot of girls are
genuinely into dominating a man and while I find it extremely fun, it is
not a sexual thing for me, which is why I couldn't stick with it.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://nyulocal.com/entertainment/2008/12/01/an-interview-with-a-real-life-nyu-dominatrix/
To respond, write to: comment at the bottom of the article


Modern Sex: Power-Play 101
by Kama Yama
The Bi-College News (Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges)
November 30, 2008

Have you ever wanted more? Wanted it harder, faster, and more aggressive?
Or did you want to be dominating, pushing and testing your lover's limits?
Or the other way around - wanting your partner to push your limits?

Power-play, also known as bondage, S/M, discipline, and role-playing,
among other names, can be extremely erotic. Sexual power-play can be mild
with light nibbles to extreme with hard bites. It can range from light
spanking to whipping. It can involve special equipment, or it can be done
with everyday items.

Power-play is not about pain, humiliation, degradation. Power-play is
always consensual and about trust. The dominant person does not want to
hurt or harm the submissive partner. The dominating partner trusts that
the submissive partner will communicate vocally or through expressions
what they are feeling.

Meanwhile, the submissive partner trusts that the dominant partner will
pay close attention to every detail of every expression, both vocally and
physically, and act in an appropriate manner. It's about communication and
lust. When aroused, what would normally be painful is pleasurable and
heightens the arousal level. Power-play can also be about empowerment and
doing something you would not ordinarily do, just to do it because you
want to try it.

The draw to power-play is often about stepping outside of one's daily role
and trying something different, and afterwards, not having any expectation
from your partner to be on top or to be on the bottom. It is not referred
to or brought into daily life, except in its own context. It is an escape
from reality. Some people follow a specific script or a predetermined
scenario, while others just go with the flow. No matter what the situation
is, it is always a good idea to have a safety word, phrase, or gesture
that signals the other partner to stop. Both partners must trust each
other to communicate any pain or discomfort during play.

Another point about power-play is that it does not necessarily involve
penetrative sex, even among heterosexual couples. It can be about either
partner's pleasure, or enjoying your partner's pleasure at what you do for
them in either a dominant or submissive position. Sometimes, the
dominating partner does everything possible to bring the submissive
partner to orgasm but then stops just before the orgasm, thus torturing
the submissive partner until they experience an explosive orgasm.

[continued]

To read this entre article, go to:
http://www.biconews.com/?p=12490
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at the bottom of
the article


Bloggers Strike Back over KOMO's Sexphobic Smear
by Dominic Holden
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
November 25, 2008

Until recently, a TV station could hype an erroneous news story about a
raunchy controversy, grab a few viewers at 11:00 p.m., and titillate them
with scandal - without any re-percussions from anybody. But lately, thanks
to the internet, the mainstream media is finding it harder to get away
with hack reporting.

Case in point: On November 17, KOMO 4 News ran a "Problem Solvers" segment
about the Center for Sex Positive Culture, a private sex club with 2,500
active members and a sister organization that teaches classes on having
better sex. News anchor Dan Lewis announced that Allena Gabosch, the
organization's executive director, "is seeking state and federal money
to
finance part of her sex organization."

Cut to KOMO's Marlee Ginter - the aforementioned "problem solver"
- taking
a tour of a windowless sex room. "I went to the club on one of its busiest
nights. I saw people naked, fondling, flogging," says Ginter. Then,
lilting her voice: "And even having sex."

But the problem for this "problem solver" was supposedly with the center's
funding. The organization's club is a 501(c)(7) nonprofit. Its tax
exemption, Ginter argued, is the equivalent of a government giveaway.

"She obviously found a way around the system," says a random woman in
Ginter's report - included, presumably, to demonstrate public outrage
about the center's finances.

However, Gabosch tells The Stranger, "We do not get money from the
government or from tax dollars" to fund the club or the organization's
sex-education wing. Indeed, IRS rules for (c)(7)s state that "a club
should be supported solely by membership fees, dues, and assessments,"
which are not tax deductible. And the sex-education wing of the
organization is a separately funded 501(c)(3), which also receives no
government funding.

In her report, unsurprisingly, Ginter never cites IRS rules. Instead, she
focuses on sexual taboos like bondage beds. In an apparent effort to prove
the state is failing to regulate the club, she interviews Tabitha
Blacksmith, a spokeswoman for the Charities Program of the Washington
Secretary of State, which only tracks nonprofits' contributions. Ginter
asks, "So you guys won't even determine... you're not a charity, you're
a
sex club." Blacksmith explained to Ginter that was outside the state's
purview.

"We don't have anything to do with [verifying] the (c)(3) or (c)(7),"
Blacksmith told The Stranger a week after the interview. "That's the IRS."

According to IRS rules, in order to qualify as a 501(c)(7), organizations
must maintain "personal contact, commingling, and face-to-face fellowship.
Members must share interests and have a common goal directed toward
pleasure, recreation, and other nonprofitable purposes."

By the IRS's standards, in other words, it practically has to be a sex
club.

But Ginter never brings up the tax rules governing groups like the center
- probably because citing what those rules actually say would undermine
the premise that there is a "problem."

The morning after KOMO's sexposC) aired, Stranger editorial director Dan
Savage launched an online assault on KOMO for its "sex-negative posturing"
and called on readers of Slog, The Stranger's blog, to e-mail complaints
to Ginter. The post was linked on numerous websites. Meanwhile, the video
of the segment went up on YouTube.

KOMO pulled the piece from its website the next day. But the controversy
was a dozen blog posts and thousands of YouTube views from being over.
"KOMO's Marlee Ginter Might Be Sucking Off Goats," two headlines readba
reference to Ginter's insinuation that the center "might be" getting
money
from the government. After all, it was just as true that Ginter "might be"
blowing goats as it was that the Center "might be" getting government
funding.

Within a day, that headline became the second Google result for Ginter's
name.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=787697
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at the
bottom of the article


Behave! Toeing the legal line with a dominatrix
by Briam Alexander
MSNBC
November 24, 2008

Is it legal to hire a dominatrix as long as you don't actually have sex?
And what does it mean exactly when a woman happily partnered with a
longtime boyfriend suddenly starts longing for a lady lover? Sexploration
answers your most intimate queries. Got a question? E-mail us.

Q: Paying for sex is illegal in most of America, but what about paying for
fetish services? Can you legally hire a dominatrix or escort for any of
the countless things besides intercourse? Where is the line drawn?

A: If you have a hankering to strap on a codpiece and pay a woman for the
privilege of scrubbing her floors while she drips hot wax on your back,
the legal line is drawn at the border of the state or country in which you
live.

If you live in the United Kingdom, you can scrub away. Formula One
president Max Mosley may have been embarrassed when spy pictures taken of
his professional interactions with dominatrices popped up in a British
tabloid, but he wasnbt doing anything illegal by paying them for a stern
scolding and a little spank.

But if you live in Arizona, where the law defines paying for "flagellation
or torture by or on a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in
revealing or bizarre costume or the condition of being fettered, bound or
otherwise physically restrained on the part of one so clothed" as illegal,
you can wind up in trouble.

In New York City, you probably wouldn't. But across the river in New
Jersey, you would. Get the picture? Even within states, laws can vary from
town to town, says Susan Wright, spokesperson for the National Coalition
for Sexual Freedom. "It is a big gray area", Wright explains. Often, she
says, "it depends on how the district attorney wants to interpret the
prostitution laws and how they define sexual conduct".

Some states are so specific they make sex read like an instruction manual
for assembling an IKEA bookcase. But some leave it vague. Generally, if
money is changing hands and somebody is inserting anything into anybody
else or touching genitals, it's probably against the law. Beyond that,
though, you have to research the laws where you live. You may wish to skip
the money and get to know people happy to participate free of charge by
attending a convention, or searching the Web. Many fetish enthusiasts I
have interviewed found each other on social networking sites.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27846842/
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Rape or consent to sex?
Prosecution: Man had history of bondage with 2 women
by Ed Palattella
The Erie Times-News
November 20, 2008

A Venango County man is claiming he and a woman were engaged in consensual
sex when he bound and gagged her with duct tape inside a Millcreek
Township motel room on March 6.


The Erie County District Attorney's Office is contending that the
defendant, Paul J. Sweetapple, 29, committed rape. And the prosecution --
at a trial that continues with jury deliberations today -- presented
evidence from two women to try to prove its case.

The first was the woman in the March incident, who was 27 at the time and
is the mother of Sweetapple's son.

The second was a woman who said Sweetapple engaged in similar behavior
with her in Franklin in 2004, when she said he tied her up with a
telephone cord during what the prosecution also characterized as forced
sex.

"It's a common plan," Assistant Erie County District Attorney Erin
Connelly told the jury of Sweetapple in her closing argument on Wednesday.
"He's going to get his sex however he can. He's into bondage.

"He did it once, and he did the same thing again."

Judge John Garhart, who is presiding, agreed with the prosecution and let
the jury hear about the other woman's experience with Sweetapple, which
she had documented in a protection-from-abuse complaint.

Connelly told the jury the testimony of both women supported physical
evidence that showed the woman in the March incident suffered from
reddened and damaged skin and genital bleeding shortly after Sweetapple
had sex with her at the El Patio Motel, 2950 W. Eighth St., where he was
living, on March 6.

Sweetapple, of Kennerdell, south of Franklin, took the stand in his own
defense and said the sex was consensual, and that he and the woman had
participated in bondage during sex before.

"It was our thing, ma'am," he told Connelly during cross-examination.

Sweetapple said he was paying child support to the woman -- she said he
was behind -- and that he would pay her extra money if she performed
sexual favors on him. He denied that woman's testimony that he bound the
woman, stuffed her underwear into her taped mouth and that he threatened
to put a plastic bag over the woman's head and kill her if she did not
have sex with him on March 6.

"The whole thing is not true, ma'am," Sweetapple testified.

The trial, which started Tuesday, was filled with jarring testimony of
what the prosecution said was Sweetapple's violent and extreme sexual
behavior.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081120/NEWS02/311209857
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

1. First Person: Open (-Minded) Relationships

2. Hey Buckle Down! It's Time to Learn About K.C.'s Leather Community

3. An Adult Haunted House

4. Officials say it's no church

5. Suspected sex club no 'church,' board rules

6. Fircrest man's sex conviction overturned

7. Papers show Duncanville swingers' club organized, profitable

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.



First Person: Open (-Minded) Relationships
by Madalene Mandap
The Synapse (University of California, San Francisco)
October 20, 2008

As we first-years settle into our new lives here, I take a look around.
Many of us come from diverse backgrounds and locales, even as far as the
exotic lands of Southern California. A transplant myself, I've been
getting comfortable testing the waters of this new city, resurrecting
cold-weather clothes I haven't seen in years. Along with these
necessities, many of us have managed to squeeze into the U-Haul the added
load of relationships. Judging from my fellow classmates (with the help of
Facebook relationship statuses), many are already "taken". Starting
professional school and moving into The City is stressful enough. Throw in
a significant other into the mix, and you've quite possibly got your work
cut out for you.

As for me, I don't do well with LDRs, and neither does my significant
other. We knew this going into our relationship earlier this summer. In
fact, we embraced the idea that, come September, I would leave, and that
would be that. It was a way to keep things light-hearted and casual. No
pressure to take things to the next level. But life, with its devilish
sense of humor, decided to reveal how compatible and head-over-heels we
were for each other. At summer's inevitable end, we were faced with a
decision neither of us wanted to make: Break up or brave an LDR. Moving to
be together was not an option. There was, however, another alternative -
one I had never considered before.

"What about an open relationship?" posed my significant other.

I only had a vague understanding of what this was, and "swinger" came
to
mind. Upon further inquiry, I found out that an open relationship is a
commitment and understanding between two people who give each other the
freedom to see other people (casually or more so), but remain committed to
the "primary" relationship. The exact terms of the open relationship have
to be discussed and agreed upon beforehand.

These include, but are not limited to: the extent of outside physical or
emotional interaction allowed and how much detail should be shared about
outside encounters or relationships. If this seems like a handful, look up
"polyamory". This is the practice of sustaining more than one relationship
(all parties consenting), with the belief that one can be in love with
and/or love multiple people simultaneously.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://synapse.ucsf.edu/articles/2008/october/9/firstperson.html
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Hey Buckle Down! It's Time to Learn About K.C.'s Leather Community
by Janet Ryan
KC Camp (Kansas City, MO)
October 17, 2008

One of the most committed and intriguing segments of our big gay family is
the leather community. You may have noticed men in motorcycle gear wearing
leather vests with interesting back patches. Maybe you've wandered into
the Leather Shop upstairs at Missie B's and had a chance to try on
something racy. Perhaps you've thought about experimenting with something
kinky in the bedroom and didn't know where to start.

Some people compare their coming out in leather to their experience of
coming out as gay. It is a process of self-discovery and acceptance,
finding community, and living your fantasy. Kansas City has a rich and
varied leather community that sponsors many events. All the clubs accept
members of any gender and orientation and work together on events like the
leather contests, which are similar to pageants, and the leather/uniform
night upstairs at Missie Bbs. Most leather folk are very approachable and
friendly in spite of the black leather and tough exterior! Most believe in
a code of ethics that include a safe, sane and consensual approach to
sexuality.

The first club to come onto the Kansas City scene was the KC Pioneers in
1974. Full members go through a pledge period and take leadership roles in
the club. Associate members are friends and supporters who join the club
for events. Originally the club was centered on riding motorcycles and
socializing. These days it's less of a motorcycle club and more of a
leather/Levi club or a back patch club, which is somewhat like a
fraternity. Pioneers still refer to each other as club brothers.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.campkc.com/campkc-content.php?Page_ID=1016
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


An Adult Haunted House
by Inara Verzemnieks
The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
October 16, 2008

This is the season of haunted houses -- grand spectacles of blood and
entrails and raw-throated screaming that come to occupy weeks, if not
months, of their organizers' lives.

On a recent Saturday, I drove out to Gresham to visit one such haunted
house. It was held at an old Grange Hall and was put on by a couple I had
met in another capacity in their other lives, which is presenting
children's puppet shows.

The last time I saw Jason Ropp and Shawnna Cady they were showing me
Jason's latest creations: a host of sweet-natured articulated bugs (a
dragonfly, a praying mantis, a ladybug, a flea), the newest characters in
one of Jason's traveling puppet shows, which he and Shawnna take to
libraries, classrooms and community centers around the country.

When the call came a few weeks ago, inviting me to see the haunt that they
had come up with this year, I don't know, I suppose I was still thinking
about the bugs. That was my last good reference point, really. So you can
probably understand why it threw me just a bit when, by the end of the
evening, I was interviewing a topless woman, her legs up in stirrups, who
had just simulated giving birth to a mutant child, while nearby, a man in
a bondage outfit took a break, jockstrap peeking out from the edges of his
leather codpiece.

Dissonance.

There is no other word for it.

Extreme dissonance.

The distance between what you expect and what you find.

Sometimes when you go way out, you end up farther than you ever imagined.

Shawnna and Jason had created two haunts -- one suitable for all ages,
featuring black-light artwork and 3-D glasses -- and another suitable only
for those 18 and over. This, obviously, was the one I happened to catch,
although on my particular visit I missed the suspension artist, a pedicab
operator who had offered to spend the occasional night hanging from the
ceiling of the haunted house on hooks carefully threaded through his skin
by a man known as Dale the Nail. Jason brought out a video camera to show
me how it looked the previous night, the skin separating, stretching from
the suspension artist's back. Jason's hands were spattered with fake
blood. He had just finished adjusting the pregnant character's prosthetic
belly, trying to make it rounder.

"Jason and I are both Christians -- believe it or not," Shawnna said,
laughing. She was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Will Scare For Candy."

More things to try to square. I was having a hard time keeping up: The
sweet blonde who spoke to me from inside an animal cage, her head sticking
through the front opening; the fact that there was a fundraising function
to all of this. The blood, breasts, bare bottoms and body modification
were helping to raise money for Gresham Little Theater, which calls this
Grange, with its failing roof and antiquated electrical system, home.
Shawnna and Jason had promised to donate a percentage of their take to
this cause.

After we had walked the haunt and I had interviewed all the principals --
"I'd shake your hand, but I'm tied up right now," said the evil
doctor;
"It's nice to be a main attraction," said the naked pregnant woman,
sitting in a pool of blood -- Shawnna realized there was one more person
she would like me to meet.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/10/an_adult_haunted_house.html
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at the
bottom of the article


Officials say it's no church
by Norm Vargo
The Pittsbugh Post-Gazette (PA)
October 16, 2008

John and Kim Ondrik have lost their bid to convert a North Huntingdon home
that housed Swingers Palace, which township officials say is a sex club
business, into the Church of Spiritual Humanities.

For now.

The township's zoning board Tuesday unanimously denied the Ondriks'
application for a special exception of an ordinance to allow the couple to
operate a church in a two-story house in the Turner Valley neighborhood.

The 15-page decision read, in part: "It is the board's opinion that the
credibility of Mr. Ondrik with regard to his contention that he is
operating a church is as suspect as to be unbelievable."

The Ondriks applied for the variance in July after township officials
cited Jack Walkmeyer, owner of the house and a township resident, for
operating a business in a residential area, an ordinance violation. The
Ondriks have 30 days to file an appeal in the Westmoreland County Court of
Common Pleas.

Attorney Samuel S. Pangburn said his client, Mr. Ondrik, who claims to be
a minister, has decided to appeal.

"Rev. Ondrik and I expected this decision," Mr. Pangburn said. "But
it's
not over by a long shot.

Mr. Ondrik's said over the telephone from his home in Fredericktown,
Washington County, yesterday that, "actually, I'm very happy. Now we're
going to see a judge."

"I have a legal right under federal law to open a church. I need to
resolve this issue. I have weddings scheduled."

The so-called church has been a target of vandalism in recent weeks, Mr.
Ondrik noted.

"A church sign crafted by a parishioner was stolen off the front door to
the lower level," Mr. Ondrik said. "We had a couple of break-ins, one
in
July. There's a police report. Somebody bulldozed a wedding gazebo we
built."

Zoning board solicitor John Campfield said Tuesday: "After hearing and
reviewing all the evidence presented during that hearing, the board found
that it wasn't a church, rather a business they were conducting that
people called a 'swingers type' of activity for a fee.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08290/920222-59.stm
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Suspected sex club no 'church,' board rules
by Norm Vargo
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
October 15, 2008

Late Saturday night "church" services are off this weekend at 4500 Turner
Valley Road in North Huntingdon, and services may never resume.

A five-member township Zoning Board last night unanimously denied the
application of John L. Ondrik and his wife, Kim, for a special exception
variance to operate a church in a home located in the secluded property
along the Youghiogheny River.

The Ondriks applied for special exception variance to the ordinance which
would have allowed them to operate the Church of Spiritual Humanism in the
home. A hearing in early September regarding the application was conducted
before a full Zoning Board.

But residents who live nearby and some township officials believe that the
church is really a sex club, known as Swingers Palace, that operates in
the lower level of a two-story home the Ondriks were leasing to purchase.

The decision read by board member Jacqueline Willis was greeted by
applause and cheers from a crowd of about 40 people that included
residents and neighbors from the area and township officials.

Residents claim suspicious activities have been going on there for nearly
30 years.

"I feel vindicated," resident Michelle Brokenbek said. "A 27-year
battle
is finally over. Finally somebody listened to us and things got done."

"I feel the Zoning Board made the right decision," township Commissioner
Lee Moffatt said. "These folks have suffered enough."

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08289/919941-59.stm
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Fircrest man's sex conviction overturned
by Associated Press
via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
October 15, 2008

TACOMA, Wash. -- A state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a
Fircrest man who was found guilty of sexually exploiting a 14-year-old
girl.

The court ruled Tuesday that the judge in the 2006 trial of Stanley Scott
Sadler made errors in jury selection and allowing evidence from a faulty
search.

The 51-year-old has served two years of a 10-year sentence. Pierce County
prosecutors are deciding whether to try him again.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports Sadler met the girl through a Web site for
bondage-style sex. He called himself "Master Thorn." She advertised
herself as a 19-year-old willing sex partner.

Sadler was arrested after police tracked the girl's Internet postings to
his home. She had been reported missing.


To read this entire article, go to:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_sexual_exploitation.html
To reply, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Papers show Duncanville swingers' club organized, profitable
by Jon Nielsen
The Dallas Morning News (TX)
October 7, 2008

Documents from last week's arrests of the owners of Duncanville's
swingers' club suggest an organized, profitable venture.

According to the arrest warrant affidavits for Jim Trulock, 59, and Julie
M. Norris, 30, the pair run the Cherry Pit more like a business, with
employees, staff meetings and donations that totaled more than $102,000
over 16 months.

The Duncanville Police Department's investigation accuses them of
operating a sex club, possessing large amounts of alcohol, promoting
prostitution and engaging in organized crime and money laundering.

Ed Klein, the attorney for Mr. Trulock and Ms. Norris, said the city is
harassing the couple in an effort to run them out of town.

"They want to prolong the abuse," Mr. Klein said. "Just when Jim
and Julie
make sure it's OK to sit down and have a quiet dinner at home, they're
going to pounce on them every chance they get."

On Thursday, Duncanville authorities arrested Mr. Trulock on suspicion of
organized crime, a first-degree felony. One day later, officials arrested
Ms. Norris on the same charge. If convicted on the organized crime charge,
the pair could serve five to 99 years or life in prison and pay a fine not
exceeding $10,000.

In a short news release issued Friday, the case's chief detective, Dan
Hunt, said he expects additional arrests.

Duncanville city leaders have worked to shut down the Cherry Pit for
nearly a year. Last November, the City Council passed an ordinance
restricting where sexually oriented businesses can operate.

Mr. Klein filed a lawsuit against the city challenging the ordinance. That
case has yet to be heard.

Last month, the couple was arrested on Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code
charges, a Class A misdemeanor. Police found more than 300 bottles of
alcohol at the home.

Search warrant affidavits executed in July indicate that Mr. Trulock and
Ms. Norris operate parties in their home in the 1300 block of North Cedar
Ridge Road near Interstate 20. Up to 100 people attend the parties held
each weekend.

Mr. Trulock accepts donations of $25 to $100 for entry from men and
couples. Single women are generally admitted free, the affidavit stated.

But those who don't pay the donation aren't admitted to the Cherry Pit,
according to the latest arrest affidavit.

And in August 2007, police were called to the Cherry Pit after one man
refused to pay the entire $50 donation. The affidavit stated the man had
only paid $40 and wouldn't pay the difference.

Mr. Hunt said donation forms for the Cherry Pit show $102,260 collected
from March 2007 to July 2008. But Mr. Hunt said he "believes that the
amount of revenue generated by the business is far greater than that
represented by the donation forms."

Officers found information in the July raid that 7,000 people have
attended parties in the last year, and parties can earn about $10,000 per
month.

Once inside, the patrons can engage in sex acts with others in several
rooms in the home. Pornography is displayed on video screens, and liquor
is served from behind a bar. According to the affidavit, snacks are
served, and the Cherry Pit advertises a hot breakfast once a month.

Patrons are also given fun money to negotiate sex acts from others.
Several people, including the DJ, the bartender and a woman identified in
the affidavit as an employee, also received tips in the form of fun money.
The fun money can be turned in at the end of the parties for prizes,
according to the affidavit.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-pitarrestfolo_07met.ART0.State.Edition1.398940f.html
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at bottom of article



HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and The Foundation of NCSF

1. Pennsylvania Town Says Couple Runs Swingers' Club Inside Church
2. Shrinks: Kinky Sex is a Mental Disorder
3. Duncanville court postpones trial for 'Cherry Pit' swingers club owners
4. Duncanville police arrest co-owner of Cherry Pit swingers club
5. Tribeca S&M palace raided; owner, 'Domina' held on prostitution raps

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update
September 21, 2008
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.



"Pennsylvania Town Says Couple Runs Swingers' Club Inside Church"
by Todd Connor
Fox News
September 19, 2008

PITTSBURGH - A Pennsylvania couple is fighting to maintain a church they
run from a Huntingdon Township home, which officials say is really a
raunchy swingers club where single men have to pay for access but women
come for free.

John and Kim Ondrik say they worship nature at the Church for Spiritual
Humanism. But midnight mass at the Spiritual Palace is on hold as the Rev.
John and his wife fight for a variance to continue practicing their
religion in a residential area just outside of Pittsburgh.

Opponents of his church, including neighbors and North Huntingdon Township
officials, say what's really behind those closed doors is a club called
the "Swinger's Palace."

Township commissioner Richard Gray said it's been an open secret that a
swingers club has operated out of the two-story house since the 1970s, but
they finally have the evidence to shut it down.

Gray said the dispute is not about church or sex ? it's about having a
business operating in a residentially zoned area.

"The mere fact that they were charging a mandatory fee to get in, in my
opinion, would constitute a business," he said.

An attorney representing John Ondrik told FOX News that members in the
private church give a donation and aren't charged to get inside the
midnight masses, which typically take place on Friday and Saturday nights.

"You have a right to run a church in a residential area not because of
your free exercise rights under the Constitution, but simply because
churches are not primarily commercial," said Bruce Ledewitz, a law
professor at Duquesne University.

Ledewitz said the Ondriks might have a case if they can convince
authorities they're sincere about their religion and that they truly
believe in their church.

But keeping the Palace open might be a tough sell. Its Web site, which was
recently taken offline, showed that couples were charged an admission of
$50 while single men had to pay $75. Single women could attend free of
charge.

Self-described swinger "Dave" said he and his partner paid money to get
into the club. "You didn't get in without paying money. If you didn't pay
your money you were going back out the door."

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,425585,00.html
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


"Shrinks: Kinky Sex is a Mental Disorder"
by staff writer
MomLogic.com
September 19, 2008

According to doctors, people who engage in kinky sex are just plain nuts.
Find out why --- and what's being done about it.

People who engage in adventurous sex are now being labeled with a "mental
health illness," according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders or DSM. Yup, that's right, the official handbook of
psychiatry has now added kinky sex to its list of mental disorders.

In other words, if you indulge in role-playing, enjoy the feel of hot
candle wax, or use handcuffs (even the furry kind!) you're considered
someone who has a "mental disorder characterized by a preference for or
obsession with unusual sexual practices." The shame!

This isn't the first time the DSM has stirred controversy: Until 1974,
homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder. And now engaging in "wild"
sex which, for some people, that just means "normal," is a sign one has
lost their marbles.

?A group called the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom has launched a
petition to get "BDSM" (bondage, role-playing, punishment, discipline, and
fetishes, just to name a few) out of the DSM. In fact, they published a
paper on the topic here, and invite people to support their endeavor. They
are also asking that APA to base its conclusions on science, not on the
mainstream idea of what's considered "normal."

Why is this so important? If you meet the criteria for a DSM-approved
disorder, it could affect you at the workplace -- and even in child
custody agreements.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.momlogic.com/2008/09/dsm_sex_crazy.php
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or comment at the bottom
of the page


"Duncanville Court Postpones Trial for 'Cherry Pit' Swingers Club Owners"
by Jon Nielsen
The Dallas Morning News (Texas)
September 18, 2008

Duncanville's municipal court postponed a trial date today for the Cherry
Pit owners accused of violating the city's sexually oriented business
ordinance.

The cases will be heard Oct. 27. The original date was set for Monday.

At issue in the municipal court case is about a dozen citations issued to
owners Julie M. Norris, 30, and Jim Trulock, 59, for running the swingers
club out of their home. The city has targeted the home, which sits on a
wooded residential lot on North Cedar Ridge Drive near Interstate 20, for
operating a sexually oriented business without a license and in a
residential neighborhood. City leaders and investigators maintain that the
home is a business because patrons are asked for a donation to attend
weekend and holiday parties.

Further complicating the case are the recent arrests of Mr. Trulock and
Ms. Norris on suspicion of serving alcohol at an unregistered club. The
Class A misdemeanor carries up to a one-year jail sentence or a fine up to
$4,000.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .


Duncanville police arrest co-owner of Cherry Pit swingers club
by Jon Nielsen
The Dallas Morning News (Texas)
September 17, 2008

Duncanville police arrested the co-owner of a swingers club known as the
Cherry Pit on Wednesday.

The arrest of Julie M. Norris, 30, comes a day before a scheduled pretrial
hearing in the case against the notorious Duncanville sex club. Mrs.
Norris was charged with violating the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code for
operating an unregistered club, a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, she
can serve up to one year in jail or a fine of up to $4,000.

The co-owner of the Cherry Pit, 59-year-old Jim Trulock, was arrested on
the same charge earlier this month.

Duncanville city officials have said that the couple is illegally
operating an unlicensed club in a residential neighborhood near Interstate
20 and North Cedar Ridge Drive. The City Council issued a ban in November
on sexually oriented businesses, but police documents show parties
continue at the home. City leaders say that patrons to the home are asked
to donate money to get into the home where alcohol is served.

During a pair of July raids at the home, authorities confiscated large
amounts of alcohol and "fun money" used to purchase sex acts.

[continued]

To read this article, go to: 

The Dallas News
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

"Tribeca S&M Palace raided; owner, 'Domina' Held on Prostitution Raps"
by Barbara Ross, Kerry Burke, and Alison Gendar
The New York Daily News (New York)
September 17, 2008

A Manhattan S&M club that billed itself as the "Leading House of
Domination in NYC" was put out of business Wednesday after the NYPD busted
its manager and seized its business records.

The ladies at the Walker St. club, Rapture, all had "extensive and
rigorous" training in the art of bondage, and customers of the Tribeca
dungeon were whipped and poked by professionals, its advertising claimed.

"Each Domina is uniquely qualified to deliver the fantasy," the club's Web
site boasted.

Rapture promised "immaculately clean" and fully equipped rooms capable of
offering everything from "light play" to "heavy suspension and complex
medical sessions."

The NYPD had received numerous complaints from the club's unamused
neighbors that the third-floor operation was a straight-up house of
prostitution - despite the club's claims to the contrary.

"We do not engage in any form of prostitution whatsoever, so don't even
ask!" the ads claimed.

The NYPD's Manhattan South vice unit busted Collin John Reeve, 35, on
Tuesday for promoting prostitution and collared one of his ladies, Gina
Noto, 21, for prostitution, police said.

Noto, who is studying to become a nurse-practitioner, allegedly offered an
undercover vice cop a "prostate massage" for cash, court records stated.

On the walls of the club were lists of at least 17 dominatrices - and a
list of their special skills.

Whips, chains, hoists and sex toys filled the rooms.

Cops went back to the club Wednesday with a search warrant and seized
Rapture's business and payroll records, said Capt. Steven Braille,
commanding officer for the vice squad.

Braille said the investigation was ongoing and declined to discuss whether
other arrests were pending or whether customers were also under scrutiny.

Reeve's lawyer said his client was no pimp but a war veteran from the 82nd
Airborne Division who was honorably discharged.

"The NYPD does not know the difference between prostitution and freedom of
expression," said Reeve's attorney Salvatore Strazzullo.

"There is nothing on the books that states S&M is illegal," Strazzullo
said.

"The City of New York should know the difference between prostitution and
a perfectly legal S&M dominatrix house," he added.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/09/17/2008-09-17_tribeca_sm_palace_raided_owner_domina_he.html
To respond, write to: the editors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or
comment at the bottom of the page



HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

1. Sex-slave conviction overturned
2. Murder-suicide autopsies: 3 died of gunshot wounds
3. 'Booger Red' Gets Life
4. This swinger feels persecuted
5. Study Suggests Polygamy May Lead To A Longer Life
6. For some, Gitmo interrogation techniques are a real turn-on

7. Court overturns conviction of NYC's 'S&M Svengali'

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom -- Media Update
August 22, 2008
www.ncsfreedom.org
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant mention
of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or anywhere
in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.


Sex-slave conviction overturned
by Jeff Lipton
Nassau Herald (Nassau, NY)
August 21, 2008

A federal appeals court last week overturned the conviction of a North
Woodmere man who was sentenced to nine years in prison last September for
the sadomasochistic torture of a woman he met on the Internet.

 

In a 17-page decision on Aug. 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit granted Glenn Marcus, 55, a new trial in the sensational sex-slave
case, which dates to 1998, when he first met the woman online.

Marcus was accused of sexually torturing the now 40-year-old woman, who has
been identified only as "Jodi." He also posted photos of sadomasochistic
acts on a Web site that he forced her to operate eight to 10 hours a day
without compensation between November 1999 and September 2001, according to
prosecutors.

Marcus was living in his parents' North Woodmere home during the time he
carried out what prosecutors described as his "horrific sexual abuses"
-
from 1998, when he met the woman on the Internet, to May 12, 2005, when he
was arrested.

Following a week-long trial in U.S. District Court in February 2007, a jury
of seven men and five women found Marcus guilty of sex trafficking and
forced labor, ruling that he violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
(TVPA). District Court Judge Allyne Ross sentenced him to a nine-year prison
term on Sept. 18.

But the three-judge appeals panel ruled last week since a good portion of
the alleged crimes took place before the TVPA was enacted in October 2000,
the conviction against Marcus should be thrown out.

The judges ruled that Marcus's conviction violated the Constitution's Ex
Post Facto clause.

Marcus's attorney, Herald Price Fahringer, who handled the appeal, said his
client was "extremely pleased" with the court decision. He said that Marcus
has been held in jail for about eight months, and Fahringer hopes to get
bail set for him so Marcus can be released until his next trial. The date
for the retrial has not yet been set.

"He's elated over the results of the reversal," Fahringer said of
Marcus. "At least he's not convicted anymore, and a trial means another chance."

Marcus met Jodi in an online chat room devoted to bondage, dominance and
sadomasochism, according to court records, and persuaded her to travel from
her home in the Midwest to Maryland so they could meet, which they did in
October 1998, court documents state. During the visit, Marcus whipped Jodi
and carved the word "slave" on her stomach with a knife.

The slave-master relationship continued, and he punished the woman when she
expressed a desire to leave him in January 2000. Marcus forced her into his
parents' basement in North Woodmere, placed a hood over her head, assaulted
her with hypodermic needles and a knife and then posted these images on his
Web site, authorities said.

In August 2001, when the victim once again asked for her freedom, Marcus
took her to the basement of a Hewlett residence of a female acquaintance,
bashed her head against a metal beam and bound her ankles and wrists to the
ceiling, leaving her there for several hours, prosecutors charged. He then
forced her to have sexual intercourse with him, photos of which he also
posted on the Web site, prosecutors said.

When the woman finally managed to escape, Marcus threatened that if she went
to the authorities, he would send the Web site images of her to her parents
and to newspapers to humiliate her.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20085310

To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or write to the
editors at

http://www.zwire.com/site/blocks/opinion/opinion.cfm?newsid=20085310

 

 

Murder-suicide autopsies: 3 died of gunshot wounds
by Abby Simons
Minneapolis Star Tribune (Minnesota)
August 21, 2008


Sherburne County officials continued Thursday to interview friends of a
Zimmerman man believed to have killed his wife and a man they met through
an online swingers club and then himself.

An autopsy conducted by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner revealed
Thursday that Gary Heald, 59, shot himself to death and that Deloris
(DeDe) Heald, 56, of Zimmerman also was killed by gunfire. Autopsy results
for Rory Scott Zitur, 47, of Buffalo, have not been released, but
investigators have said that all three were shot to death.

Sherburne County Sheriff's Capt. Don Starry said Thursday that interviews
are still being conducted with those who knew the Healds, and that once
the investigation is complete, more information could be released
regarding Zitur's relationship with the Healds, and the "chat line"
where they met.

"It should be part of the information that comes out," he said. "Though
a lot of that specific stuff had already come out."

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:

http://www.startribune.com/local/north/27255444.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_n

To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at http://mpls.startribune.com/dynamic/feedback/form.php


'Booger Red' Gets Life
by Casey Knaupp
The Tyler Morning Telegraph (Tyler, Texas)
August 21, 2008

Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly was found guilty Thursday of engaging in
organized criminal activity and sentenced to life in prison for conspiring
with other adults to force two young siblings to have sex with each other
for a paying audience.

A Smith County jury of seven women and five men deliberated for less than
two hours before convicting Kelly, 41, Tyler, of the first-degree felony
for forcing a boy to have sex with his older sister during a doctor skit
at the Mineola Swingers' Club for his financial gain on Aug. 1, 2004.

He was sentenced to the maximum sentence of life in prison and a $10,000
fine by the jury in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.'s court after
about 10 minutes of deliberation.

Four of the five child victims in the case also testified. All of them
identified Kelly, whom they know as "Booger Red," as being part of a group
of adults that taught them in "kindergarten" how to perform sex acts and
then forced them to dance and perform for a paying audience at the club.

Kelly testified, denying he sexually abused the children or ever went to
the club. He said he never held "kindergarten" at his house and never
forced them to dance or perform sex acts.

Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy said the case boiled
down to who the jurors believed and asked if they believed the children.
He said the defense wanted the jurors to believe a bunch of swingers and a
man named David with a bunch of tattoos, which one of the victims
described as being at the club, as well as the defense expert who didn't
look at all of the evidence in the case.

Murphy said another of the defense's theories was that the case was a
conspiracy with the Texas Ranger, Child Protective Services, the foster
parents, therapists and the children. He said Mineola police did a one-day
investigation and then shut the case.

Murphy said the swingers testified that kids weren't at the club the four
or five nights they were there out of four months it was in operation in
2004. He said the state never said the swingers were there watching the
kids, but he didn't think they were being completely truthful.

Like Kelly, "no one is going to stand up and say yes, I did this," he
said.

According to defense attorney Thad Davidson "We found eight swingers"
that testified that the club was open Friday and Saturday nights and the
only people with keys to the building were Russ and Sherry Adams.

He said one of the rules of the swingers' club was that no children were
ever allowed; it was only consenting adults who were not pedophiles. The
swingers testified they had never seen Kelly before.

Davidson said the only one who did a thorough investigation in the case
and went to Kelly's house was not Kemp, it was CPS Investigator Katy Wady.
She found no evidence that Kelly sexually abused his son or the children
victims in the case, he said.

Davidson said being a Texas Ranger is prestigious, but he was not
qualified as an expert in sexual abuse cases. The techniques Kemp used
when interviewing the children were improper because Ms. Cantrell was in
the room in some of them. The boy said 13 times he didn't know what they
were talking about when questioned.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080821/NEWS08/207324
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at the
bottom of the article

This swinger feels persecuted:
Owner of Sextasy wants license, fights eviction
by Joe Schoenmann
The Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nevada)
August 21, 2008

David Cooper says he and his wife and their girlfriend have for years been
trying to find a "nice" establishment in which to have group sex with
strangers.

He finally gave up on finding anything "where the walls don't crawl"
and decided to open his own "high-end" swingers club, Sextasy, in the
Commercial Center shopping mall.

The Commercial Center, on Sahara Boulevard just west of Maryland Parkway,
seemed like the right place for it. The valley's oldest strip mall has a
long history of housing controversial, adults-only businesses. For years
it was home to the Apollo, which was known as a meeting place for gay men.
These days the mall has a bar for transsexuals and a phone bank for an
outcall service.

And while it is also home to a nationally praised Thai restaurant, Lotus
of Siam, the Commercial Center's X-rated claim to infamy is the Green
Door, which describes itself online as "the largest sex club in the
country!!!"

But, as with numerous other swingers clubs around the valley, the Green
Door's business license says it's a restaurant, a health club/spa,
everything but a sex club. Sex clubs, you see, are public nuisances,
according to the county code. That means they are illegal.

So Cooper figured he could just go along with the wink-and-a-nod protocol
and in February applied for a business license for a "restaurant" which
he eventually named Sextasy.

Then he encountered what his former lawyer, Allen Lichtenstein, lambasted
as bureaucratic hypocrisy, arbitrary code enforcement and, underlying it
all, the county's wish to get rid of Commercial Center once and for all.

For years the county has talked about its desire to redevelop Commercial
Center, but has had a problem coming up with the money to buy out the
dozens of business owners operating there.

One effective strategy would be to drive down the price by using the power
of the government to get rid of the tenants first, Lichtenstein said.
Lichtenstein said the county early on "made specific overtures to (buy)
specific businesses".

"And that is what's really going on here", he added. "They want
to buy the property".

In February, in fact, the Clark County Commission approved the spending of
up to $7.6 million by the county's redevelopment agency to appraise and
buy three adult-oriented businesses in Commercial Center, then relocate
the businesses and knock down the buildings.

Cooper said he was in meetings with county officials when they offered
tens of thousands of dollars for him to relocate. When the landlords of
the three properties couldn't come to an agreement, the buyout fell
through and the county came after Cooper, he said.

But Lichtenstein and Cooper say the issues go beyond the Commercial Center
and its adult businesses.

At its core, Lichtenstein said, it's a matter of the county's selectively
enforcing its rules when it comes to sex businesses. "They're basically
taking the position that they can decide which ones they will allow and
which ones they won't allow", he said.

Cooper points to recent activity by the county against a fetish club
called Libertine that was located in a strip mall near Pecos and Sunset
roads. The county denied the Libertine its business license in March, and
the district attorney's office followed up in April with a complaint
alleging the Libertine was a sex club. In July, District Court Judge
Valorie Vega ordered the Libertine closed.

County spokesman Dan Kulin said the county is not targeting any business.
"Speaking in general terms, when we find out about something that
shouldn't be going on, we take the appropriate action", he said.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/21/swinger-feels-persecuted/
To respond, write to: the author at
http://www.lasvegassun.com/staff/joe-schoenmann/contact/


Study Suggests Polygamy May Lead To A Longer Life
by staff writers
RedOrbit
August 19, 2008

New research suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from
monogamous ones.

Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, suggested that
after accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140
countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12%
longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations.

The research looks to solve the long-standing puzzle of life expectancy in
human biology.

A phenomenon called the grandmother effect seeks to explain why women are
able to live so long after the menopauseunlike nearly all other animals.

Lummaa says for every 10 years a woman survives past the menopause, she
gains two additional grandchildren. It seems that doting on and spoiling
grandchildren aids their survival, as well as furthering some of their
grandmother's genes.

By contrast, men can reproduce well into their 60s and even 70s and 80s,
leading most researchers to assume this explained their longevity.

However, Lummaa and colleague Andy Russell wondered whether other factors
explained the long lifespan of men.

The researchers then compared the lifespan of men from polygamous
countries with those from monogamous nations.

 

The team then scored 189 countries on a monogamy scale of one to four -
totally monogamous to mostly polygamous, taking into account a country's
gross domestic product and average income to minimize the effect of better
nutrition and healthcare in monogamous Western nations.

"Our monogamy score is a crude first stab, and we're working to find
multiple ways to assess marriage patterns", Lummaa said. She also added
that the conclusions could evaporate under further analysis.

The study suggests that if female survival is the main explanation for
male longevity, then monogamous and polygamous men would live for about
the same length of time.

However, it seems that fathering more kids with more wives leads to
increased male longevity. Men, then, live long because they're fertile
well into their grey years.

This could be both a social and genetic explanation.

Men who continue fathering kids into their 60s and 70s could take better
care for their bodies because they have mouths to feed. But evolutionary
forces acting over thousands of years could also select for longer-lived
men in polygamous cultures.

Chris Wilson, an evolutionary anthropologist at Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York, who attended the talk, said the new study is a valid
hypothesis and a good prediction.

 

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:

 

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1526594/study_suggests_polygamy_may_lead_to_a_longer_life/

 

To respond, write to: http://www.redorbit.com/feedback/ or comment
at the bottom of the article.

 

 

For some, Gitmo interrogation techniques are a real turn-on
by Lisa Rose
New Jersey Star-Ledger
August 18, 2008

It's eerie dark in the exhibition hall at the New Jersey Convention Center
in Edison.

Usually, the room is reserved for trade shows. But this summer weekend,
it's been transformed into a 40,000-square-foot dungeon for sexual
fantasy.

Welcome to The Floating World, three days of suspended reality geared
toward those who explore extremes in carnality. The program encompassed
bondage, sadomasochism and role playing -- including Gitmo-inspired
interrogator/detainee "torture" sessions.

The private event -- no tickets sold at the door, no advertising anywhere
but the Web -- drew nearly 1,000 attendees of every sexual orientation,
from Jersey and beyond. The registration fee for the gathering, which ran
Friday through yesterday, was $125-$190.

The course catalog featured a mix of lectures about relationships and
hands-on safety workshops. There were lessons in whipping, caning, roping,
gagging, punching, burning, biting, spanking and "power flogging."

"Education is really important," says Dan Andersen, director of the
Floating World, a nonprofit event launched last year and named for an
Edo-era Japanese subculture. "If you take your education from the movies,
you're going to do a lot of bad things."

A sign of the times, the course list also included "Interrogation and
Torture Techniques." The class, which outlined how to fetishize Guantanamo
Bay and Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, was taught by an instructor with a
military background. The core idea of torture play is to integrate topical
imagery as a trigger to boost fear and stimulate endorphins.

"When we're using those references, it's to provoke a reaction,"
says Susan Wright, founder of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and an
author whose latest novel is titled "A Pound of Flesh."

"Anybody who protests us should ask themselves why they are not protesting
the reality of torturing prisoners. We're consenting adults. We might get
in a pool with each other and waterboard somebody, but the person can say,
'No, I don't like this.' They have a safeword." (Prearranged "safewords"
are established as a stop signal.)

Some arrived at the convention center in plain vanilla street clothes,
while others strutted their liberated stuff in body stockings, dog collars
and shoes that could double as daggers. Scattered amid the cars in the
parking lot were carts for "ponies," people saddled and harnessed like
horses.

Classrooms corralled the dungeon, a maze of not-so-comfy chairs, benches
and racks. Keeping watch were 22 dungeon monitors, eight medical techs and
a dozen security guards.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/living-1/12190341269881.o.xml

To respond, go to:
http://www.nj.com/contactus/


Court overturns conviction of NYC's 'S&M Svengali'
by Adam Goldman
Associated Press
August 16, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of a
man dubbed the "S&M Svengali" and ordered a retrial in a sensational
case that involved mutilation and humiliation.

Glenn Marcus, 55, was convicted of breaking a law that wasn't in place
when some of the offenses happened, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
said in a decision issued Thursday.

A three-judge panel said Marcus' March 2007 conviction in federal court in
Brooklyn violated the Constitution. The New York man was sentenced to nine
years in prison for abusing a woman he photographed for his Web site,
which reveled in sadomasochism. She was identified only as "Jodi."

Authorities used the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act to prosecute
Marcus for incidents spanning from 1999 to 2001. Marcus' attorneys argued
that the law was applied retroactively, and the appeals court agreed.

Prosecutors claimed Marcus crossed the boundaries of both civilized
society and the S&M community by holding his victim against her will.

The woman met Marcus in 1998 and agreed to be one of his "slaves." He
carved the word "slave" into her abdomen with a knife, shaved her head
and systematically punished her, according to the appellate decision. He also
forced her to write for the Web site while he kept every penny it earned
through advertising and membership fees.

During their last encounter, he beat and whipped her while hanging her
from a beam, then forced her to write about it on the Web site, the
decision said.

 

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gCNSdAOs-EHVtthtUTStflZHMzsgD92JJSF00

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of

alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can

help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types

of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your

name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for

verification only). For more information, see:

https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,

swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of

this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and the Foundation of NCSF

 

1. Max Mosley Tells Court Sex Video Had No Nazi Elements
2. Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival
3. Swingtown, California Judges Break Rules on Marriage and Civility
4. In Madison, It's Easy to Be Kinky: The Community
5. Stuff so raunchy, it's illegal
6. Porn peddlers guilty
7. I Can't Believe I'm Still Single From Portland to Portland: Episode One
8. What's obscene? Google Could Have an Answer?

 

NCSF Media Updates represent a sampling of recent stories printed in US
newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant
mention of SM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate - or
anywhere in between.

NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what
media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages
readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.



Max Mosley Tells Court Sex Video Had No Nazi Elements
by Caroline Byrne
Bloomberg News Service
July 7, 2008

Max Mosley, president of Formula One's ruling body, told a London court
today there were no Nazi overtones in excerpts of a sex video he appears
in published by the U.K. News of the World newspaper.

Mosley, 68, is suing the British tabloid for saying he and the women in
the video were dressed as concentration camp guards and prisoners. Mosley
testified on the first day of the trial today in London that there weren't
any Nazi elements during the sadomasochistic sex depicted on the tape.

``Never. Absolutely not,'' Mosley said. ``I can think of few things more
un-erotic than Nazi role play.''

A lawyer for News of the World, Mark Warby, said the story was legitimate
and in the public interest given that whipping or beating a person is a
criminal offense regardless of whether they consent. Mosley said he was
whipped until he bled.

Society ``draws a line at causing people injury for the purpose of sexual
gratification,'' Warby said. ``S&M doesn't promote human dignity,
it
demeans it.''

Just because the sexual activity was behind closed doors doesn't guarantee
it was a private act under the European Convention on Human Rights, Warby
said. Under questioning this afternoon, Mosley agreed that the group were
dressed up as prisoners and that one woman wore a uniform. He denied the
uniform was German military.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a3hU7Xpd2XxM&refer=germany
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the
editors at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/fbk


Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival
by Daniel Rifkin
Metromix - Baltimore
July 5, 2008

Former porn stars, sex gurus, belly dancers and performers make an
appearance at this event, filled with drag and burlesque shows, orgasm
workshops, fetishism and more. The festival also includes an erotic arts
exhibit at Load Of Fun Studios, running through July.

Friday is dedicated to "before the edge" art: Things that are more
playful, teasing and implicitly sexual. This includes drag and burlesque
shows, as well as body painting and a human buffet. (To clarify, food is
served on humans, not made of humans.)

Saturday, aims to go "after the edge," with events leaning toward more
sexually explicit topics, such as fetishism and BDSM. Special guests such
as bondage and fetish model Klawdya Rothschild, pornography director and
photographer Julie Simone and others will be on hand.

"My goal was not to redraw the boundaries between sexual differences, [or]
decide what belongs [in eroticism] and what doesn't," said festival
sponsor and Load Of Fun Studios curator Suzannah Gerber. "My standpoint
was just to make this festival as erotic and eclectic as possible."

[continued]

To read this article, go to:
http://baltimore.metromix.com/events/performance/baltimore-erotic-arts-festival-station-north/398120/content
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Swingtown, California Judges Break Rules on Marriage and Civility
by Richard Nelson (appears to be opinion, listed as "News")
WKYX AM Paducah KY/WNGO AM Mayfield, KY
July 3, 2008

When CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said in late 2006 that the
network was "going to throw out the rule book," she wasn't kidding.
In
case anybody was wondering just what rules she was talking about, the wait
is over. On June 5, CBS officially joined the marriage deconstruction
movement when it premiered Swingtown-an edgy sitcom that eviscerates
marriage in our postmodern culture.

Swingtown, named in part for the wife-swapping that occurs, features open
marriage and group sex as normal. Today's cultural elite hope Swingtown,
which also refers to the mid-70s as a watershed when the cultural and
moral tide turned, serves as a catalyst to turn the tide again.

Gay marriage revolutionaries, vangards of marriage deconstruction, claim
they're not attacking marriage but rather just seeking the same freedom
that everyone else has. Perhaps Swingtown could serve as the poster city
for that idea. It's no coincidence that in a scene of a wild July 4th
party, complete with drugs and group sex, one woman extols the grandiosity
of open marriage trying to convince her newfound friend that "opening our
relationship was the best thing that ever happened." Partygoers sang the
National Anthem, and then acted as though lavishing the marital benefits
of one's spouse to another is just as American as apple pie.

Swingtown is made-up. But the legal fiction recently imposed by the
California high court that marriage is whatever you want it to be has real
consequences for our culture. Without the opposite sex requirement of
marriage, there's no longer a logical basis against the number of
participants (polygamy,) open marriage (polyamory), and blood restrictions
(adult incest).

California's Supreme Four steamrolled the democratic process and, along
with it, the self-evident truths that gender differences matter and
contribute to healthy marriage; that children deserve to have their
biological mothers and fathers raising them in the same home; and that
man-woman marriage is foundational to social stability.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.wkyx.com/local-news-details.asp?NewsID=6394
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


In Madison, It's Easy to Be Kinky: The Community
by John Mendelssohn
Dane101.com
July 2, 2008

Women wanting to be owned by men occupy only one of innumerable niches in
the world of kink, of course. For every woman who shares Frances's and
Hannah's predilection, there's a man who wants no less avidly to surrender
completely to a woman, or at least be "forced" to put on an item of her
intimate apparel and then cruelly ridiculed for having done so, or one who
wants to be spanked or flogged. There are men who ask only that their
lovers wear seamed stockings and high heels in the bedroom for them, and
others who require girdles, opera gloves, garish red lipstick, and false
eyelashes too, and others who ask that their lovers also regulate their
intake of oxygen. Just as there are women who... are thrilled to be
treated almost like pets, there are other women who delight in slipping
into gleaming latex catsuits and imperiously leading their naked spouses,
forbidden to address them as anything other than Goddess, or at all,
around on leashes.

How, if these people are telling the truth, does it make sense to condemn
as sordid or even pathological their erotic interactions while respecting
the homosexuality of their siblings or neighbors, as every enlightened
person has come to the past 30 years?

Having earlier lived in Iowa and Mexico, among less picturesque locales,
Mistress Jade -- Madison's go-to gal for submissive men whose wives or
girlfriends won't or can't play ball -- came to Madison seven years ago
because Chicago was too big and Madison was where her mother had grown up.
A virgin until age 19, if a scoffer at erotic taboos from earliest
pubescence, she is the co-proprietress, according to her Website, of The
Madison Dungeon, though such a place exists only in imagination. Local
fire and safety law preclude running an establishment in which clients are
routinely tied up; there are zoning laws to consider.

In a typical month, she'll do eight outcall sessions in the homes or motel
rooms of a clientele that, notwithstanding the classic conception of
submissive men as captains of industry yearning to relinquish power,
comprises a vast array of walks of life. "Put them all in the same small
town," she muses, "and only a couple would ever run into each other."
Along with movers and shakers, she also sees Joe Sixpacks who service
furnaces, who recondition carburetors. All they have in common is having
filled out a detailed questionnaire, the details of which Her Nibs
entrusts to an attorney for safekeeping.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dane101.com/current/2008/07/01/in_madison_its_easy_to_be_kinky_the_scene_part_two_of_a_three_part_series
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Stuff so raunchy, it's illegal
by Barry McDonald and John Stagliano (published debate)
Los Angeles Times
June 30, 2008

Barry:
Today's question focuses on whether obscenity laws should continue to
exist in modern American society. To put this question in its proper
perspective, one must understand the relatively narrow scope of these
laws. Under a 1st Amendment test established by the U.S. Supreme Court
known as the Miller test (from the 1973 case Miller vs. California), only
sexually explicit materials that are designed to appeal to a morbid
interest in things sexual and are depicted in an extremely offensive way
-- all as determined by an "average" person of a given community -- can
be
made illegal by obscenity laws. Moreover, even works that meet these
criteria but also possess serious artistic or literary value cannot be
deemed obscene (such as a sex magazine with articles). Finally, works that
qualify for obscene treatment cannot be criminalized in the home (private
possession is legal). It is mainly the public sale, distribution or
exhibition of such materials that can be prohibited.

In short, obscenity laws generally target commercial distributors of
extreme pornography. And even there, obscenity prosecutions are rare
because of the difficulties prosecutors encounter in proving that
materials meet the Miller standards. One study found that materials that
have been deemed obscene by juries or judges usually contain explicit
depictions of sex acts involving human excretion, sex with human corpses
or live animals, acts of incest or violent, forced sex.

Because today's question asks us to assume that such extreme materials are
made without violating any laws (an assumption that would probably falter
in the real world), we must inquire whether even simulated depictions of
such acts should qualify for illegal treatment when they are publicly
distributed or exhibited. In other words, the standard way of putting the
question usually asks: "If no one is harmed by this stuff and someone
wants it, who is the government to say that he or she can't have it?"

John:
It does not matter to you that pornography is now almost exclusively
consumed in the privacy of one's own home. In fact, to me this is not the
issue. The issue is about porn that is "extremely offensive." Some
individuals do not take offense to extreme porn, and those individuals are
protected by the Constitution. No one should be subject to the whims of a
group or "community" that does not like what you look at. And what is
wrong with being extreme? In today's culture, being extreme is revered. It
is the people on the extreme who move the world forward, who experiment
and find new ways of living. Technology has made extreme changes in our
lives. If we are not open-minded to change, we stagnate and wallow in
sanctimonious righteousness about the world.

From a legal standpoint, this comes down to your view of human nature and
society. Is it right, ethical or moral for one group of people to control
the thoughts of another group? Indeed, it is the thoughts that erotic
images arouse in the viewer's mind that those who would assume the power
to control others have a problem with. Just remember that if you would
assume such power, Barry, you personally are responsible for arresting me
because I sold images you didn't like. This is exactly what you allowed to
happen when I was indicted on nine counts of obscenity by the Department
of Justice last April.

Barry, your point is that people must be forced to not think things that
you don't like, and for that you'd have me put in jail. Your comment that
it "seems" to you that viewing images "to obtain sexual pleasure
cannot be
the healthiest way of experiencing sex" seems not a good enough reason to
imprison me for 39 years. In fact, using a proper concept of morality
based on individual rights, it is you and those who would put me in jail
when I did not infringe on anyone's rights who are behaving immorally.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/suncommentary/la-op-mcdonald-stagliano30-2008jun30,0,2034954.story
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at bottom of article


Porn peddlers guilty:
4 men avoid trial in case of X-rated Web site run out of Pensacola area
by Kris Wernowsky
Pensacola News Journal
June 25, 2008

The final curtain dropped Tuesday on a multimillion-dollar adult
entertainment enterprise B- featuring X-rated movies shot in Pensacola and
Pace - as its key players pleaded guilty in court.

- Clinton Raymond McCowen, 47, of Navarre, also known as Ray Guhn, pleaded
guilty to unlawful financial transactions.

McCowen will be sentenced to from three to five years in state prison.

- Andrew Craft, 40, of Pensacola, and Kevin Patrick Stevens, 38, of
Pensacola each pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering. They face two
to four years in state prison.

- Thomas Dwyer, 41, pleaded guilty to wholesale promotion of obscene
materials.

All four men remain free on bond until their Aug. 11 sentencing hearing
before Circuit Judge Ron Swanson. Each defendant left the courthouse
without comment.

"Ray Guhn Productions" featured a Web site with more than 5,000
subscribers who could view films featuring group sex and other acts for
$30 a month.

The company made $10 million in its five years of operation, prosecutors
said.

The films were made at homes throughout Pensacola and Pace; at least five
hotels in Pensacola; along Interstate 10 and Interstate 110; in wooded
areas and in other public places.

Tuesday's pleas helped attorneys avoid a three-week obscenity trial that
was expected to begin Monday with jury selection at the Santa Rosa County
Courthouse.

Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar prosecuted the two-year-old case that
began with arrests in summer 2006.

The veteran prosecutor heralded Tuesday's pleas as a major victory against
obscenity in the Panhandle and the state of Florida.

"We have this problem statewide. I hope prosecutors will take our lead and
enforce our law," he said.

But McCowen's attorney thought otherwise.

Altamonte Springs attorney Lawrence Walters, one of McCowen's three
attorneys, is known for representing clients in the adult-entertainment
industry. He said that he doesn't expect Tuesday's outcome to result in
a
rash of charges filed by Florida prosecutors.

"There was no finding of obscenity by a jury," Walters said. "The
majority
of the state attorneys in this state have come to recognize that the
communities don't want publishers sent to jail for sexual expression."

To prove that material is obscene, and not protected by the First
Amendment, it has to fall below the community standards. In this case,
that standard is defined by the 1st Judicial Circuit of Florida.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/NEWS01/806250347
To respond, write to: the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at
bottom of the article


I Can't Believe I'm Still Single From Portland to Portland: Episode One
by Paul Goebel
TV Squad.com
June 23, 2008

The good thing about this new series is that you know in the first two
minutes whether or not you are the audience the show is looking for. All
you have to do is ask yourself, "Am I interested in seeing a man forced to
go down on a dildo being worn by a dominatrix?" If the answer is yes, keep
reading.

The premise of the show is quite simple. Eric Schaeffer wrote a book about
being single and trying to find love. When he went on his book tour he
decided to make stops along the way, talk to different people about love
and relationships and film it all for this documentary.

The show is rife with too much information. I'm sure Schaeffer finds a lot
of humor in his stories about masturbation and being anally violated but
for me it's sort of like having a friend who you've known for a short
while tell you something personal you never wanted to know, like he enjoys
being anally violated.

Another annoying part of the show are the multiple interviews Eric has
with his longtime dominatrix. I suppose if I had an interest in S&M, I
might like hearing her talk about their activities but while I enjoy many
colors of the sexual rainbow, that particular shade doesn't appeal to me,
Moreover, I don't have much interest in the sexual habits of a guy as
desperate as Eric Schaeffer, therefore those conversations are of no value
to me.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/06/23/i-cant-believe-im-still-single-from-portland-to-portland-epis/
To respond, write to: comment at bottom of article


What's Obscene? Google Could Have an Answer
by Matt Richtel
New York Times
June 23, 2008

Judges and jurors who must decide whether sexually explicit material is
obscene are asked to use a local yardstick: does the material violate
community standards?

That is often a tricky question because there is no simple, concrete way
to gauge a community's tastes and values.

The Internet may be changing that. In a novel approach, the defense in an
obscenity trial in Florida plans to use publicly accessible Google search
data to try to persuade jurors that their neighbors have broader interests
than they might have thought.

In the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to
show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search
for terms like "orgy" than for "apple pie" or "watermelon".
The publicly
accessible data is vague in that it does not specify how many people are
searching for the terms, just their relative popularity over time. But the
defense lawyer, Lawrence Walters, is arguing that the evidence is
sufficient to demonstrate that interest in the sexual subjects exceeds
that of more mainstream topics b and that by extension, the sexual
material distributed by his client is not outside the norm.

It is not clear that the approach will succeed. The Florida state
prosecutor in the case, which is scheduled for trial July 1, said the
search data may not be relevant because the volume of Internet searches is
not necessarily an indication of, or proxy for, a community's values.

But the tactic is another example of the value of data collected by
Internet companies like Google, both from a commercial standpoint and as a
window into the thoughts, interests and desires of their users.

"Time and time again you'll have jurors sitting on a jury panel who will
condemn material that they routinely consume in private", said Mr.
Walters, the defense lawyer. Using the Internet data, "we can show how
people really think and feel and act in their own homes, which,
parenthetically, is where this material was intended to be viewed", he
added.

Mr. Walters last week also served Google with a subpoena seeking more
specific search data, including the number of searches for certain sexual
topics done by local residents. A Google spokesman said the company was
reviewing the subpoena.

Mr. Walters is defending Clinton Raymond McCowen, who is facing charges
that he created and distributed obscene material through a Web site based
in Florida. The charges include racketeering and prostitution, but Mr.
Walters said the prosecution's case fundamentally relies on proving that
the material on the site is obscene.

Such cases are a relative rarity this decade. In the last eight years, the
Justice Department has brought roughly 15 obscenity cases that have not
involved child pornography, compared with 75 during the Reagan and first
Bush administrations, according to Jeffrey J. Douglas, chairman emeritus
of the First Amendment Lawyers Association. (There have been hundreds
involving child pornography.) Prosecutions at the state level have
followed a similar arc.

[continued]

To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/technology/24obscene.html?hp
To respond, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or comment at bottom of
the article


HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Feedback letters are an effective way to convey a positive image of
alternate sexual practices such as SM, swinging, or polyamory. You can
help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types
of practices. These letters help achieve the advocacy goals of the NCSF.

Generally, for a letter to be published, it's important to include your
name (or first initial, last name), city and daytime phone (for
verification only). For more information, see:
https://ncsfreedom.org/media/writelettertoeditor.htm

Please alert us to positive, negative or neutral stories about SM,
swinging and polyamory at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Comments to the editor of
this Update may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

###

A project of NCSF and ITCR: The Foundation of NCSF

1. People closely divided on swingers' club
2. Adult Movie Producer Found Guilty In Obscenity Trial
3. Jurors convict adult film producer
4. Upcoming trial will see hours of hard-core fetish pornography
5. Judge suspends L.A. obscenity trial after conceding his website had sexual images

1. What's "normal" sex? Shrinks seek definition
2. Jurors in Tampa to decide: What is obscene?
3. Obscenity case in court Wednesday
4. Virginia’s attempts to regulate sex and obscenity
5. The Leather Archives and Museum: To protect and serve
6. Duncanville officials bolster sex club ban adopted in response to Cherry Pit case

1. Woman may sue over use of likeness
2. Man involved in bondage death due in court
3. Man Gets Life In Child Sex Assault Case
4. Dominatrix Takes Pity on Bear Stearns
5. How many's a crowd?
6. Judge Throws Book at Registered Sex Offender Convicted of Murder
7. Wedded to variety
8. Looking for some fetish footage?
9. Former 'swinger' party host pleads guilty to assault in Portsmouth
10. Dan Savage and The Sexies!

 

1.  Dominatrix started probe, paper reports
2.  Dominatrix reported Bernie Ward, police say
3.  Whips and handcuffs anyone?
4.  Scanner's Sex Boycott for New York Post Readers
5.  Harder
6.  County Offers Couple $15,000 to End Suit Over Bondage Site
7.  Love Hurts: Sadomasochism's Dangers
8.  Sexual Vigilanteism at the 'New York Post'
9.  THEY BEAT IT OUT OF ME
10. Victim of near-fatal sex play at bondage club doesn't remember incident
11. The Guy Behind Mask

 

 

1. Check out the scratching and biting scene at 'Kinky U'
2. Your pain is my pleasure
3. Kinky Sex, Shocking Death
4. Leather fundraiser combines cookies, BDSM
5. M.A.L. 2008
6. County takes aim at swingers
7. 'Kinky U' promotes sexual awareness in unusual ways

1. Texas town clamps down on home sex club
2. Positive changes
3. AdultFriendFinder settles pop-up adware charges
4. 'Exposing' the Folsom Street Fair

1. Sex school? Class dismissed
2. Forget the Pulitzers -- 'The Sexies' Want Your Best Work
3. Sex Toys 101
4. Loyola University pulls student mag's sex issue
5. Sex-Related Injuries
6. A Different Sort of Ball
7. Cheap date -- what to do?
8. The Pleasures and Dangers of Bondage
9. Bob Shell apologizes for photos, not death
10. The Sex Police

1. My bizarre love triangle
2. When Blasphemous Gays Rip into Christians the MSM says Diddly Squat
3. Miller Officers Receive S&M Photos; Boycott to Extend Beyond Sunday's Event
4. Violet Blue wants to spank the SF Weekly at Folsom Street Fair
5. Preacher Caught In Sexually Explicit Chatrooms
6. Queen of kink
7. Catholic Group Threatens Battle With Miller Beer Over Racy Ad
8. Woman accused in dominatrix case appears in court
9. Keep it safe, sane, consensual
10. Dominatrix Submits To City's Wishes

1. Bondage case in final stages
2. A night of S&M ends in death. What happened - and who's responsible?
3. A trial like no other
4. "Mistress Gorgeous" busted for sex crime
5. Swingers sexploits
6. Why Lap Dances In Nashville Are Illegal But Group Sex Isn't