The following excerpt is from the book Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. Excerpted by arrangement with Seal Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) January 2009.


By Stacey May Fowles, Seal PressPosted on December 29, 2008, Printed on December 30, 2008http://www.alternet .org/story/ 113745/

This is being posted here for the information of this community. Even though twelve years old it has relevance today.

“Old Guard Avant-garde:
Getting Real About What is - and what isn’t the real thing.’”

Joseph Bean. Frontiers, October 4, 1996.

The fuss about the Old Guard of leather and the new forms leathersex has taken in recent years is not going to go away any time soon, I’m sure. Nor do I think there is much I could say that would settle many of the disagreements about what the Old Guard is or isn’t and how it relates to
the younger community and those who are newer to S&M. I took a run at explaining my point of view in “Leathersex: A Guide...,” and undertook a few related questions in “Leathersex Q&A,” but I doubt I’ve made any inroads there. So, rather than attempt a complete explanation of anything and rather than attempt to settle disputes, I’d like to just put a few thoughts in a familiar order, and leave others to determine whether I’ve given them anything useful.

Here then, in my hand, from the home office buried in my past and located
somewhere in Southern California are two Top 10 Lists, offered with apologies only to David Letterman.

I would like to share two transcripts with you. One, the West Wing transcript, was fantasy (of course) but gives some great responses to the Biblical challenge. The other is the transcript from the Jon Stewart show.

Part of the work we're doing at Woodhull is "movement messaging" -
restructuring the discourse around sex and sexuality. Part of that
work involves research - focus groups - to "test" messages. This isn't
a new technique. The "right" has perfected the technique over the
last twenty years and they have owned the debate - not just around
sexual freedom issues, but also taxes, the environment, spying and
even torture (no, not THAT kind!).

Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especial ly family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day
harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?
Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so.

November 26, 2008 - The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare is
declassifying sexual behaviors
as mental illnesses to avoid strengthening prejudice against the behaviors, the
Swedish news service
Tidningarnas Telegrambyra reported last week. The diagnoses which will soon
disappear from the disease
registry include sadomasochism, fetishism, fetishistic transvestitism,
transvestitism, gender identity
disorder in youth, and multiple disorders of sexual preferences.

States Condemn Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

(New York, June 6, 2008) - The General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) has unanimously adopted a resolution condemning human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, taking a crucial step to end the silence around violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Americas, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on OAS member governments to ensure that the resolution is implemented in their countries, and to continue their support for sexual rights internationally.

The governing body of MAsT:International has published a mission statement and and statement of core values. These documents apply to all chapters of MAsT:International and have been endorsed and adopted by MAsT:Twin Cities

The entire text is posted here for the information of the community.

The ABCs of sexual orientation
By Hardy Haberman - Contributing Columnist
Apr 17, 2008 - 3:42:36 PM

From LGBT to BDSM, sexual identity is about a life, not a lifestyle

Sometimes I think we could drown in the alphabet soup in which we live.

First there was GL, or LG for Lesbian-Gay. Then it was expanded to LGBT, a term I often have to explain is not a sandwich, but means Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender.

Then comes the whole world of leather and fetish, to which I belong as well, and you have BDSM, or SMBD as some folks prefer. Either way it stands for Bondage-Dominance-Sadomasochism, or as some prefer, Bondage Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadomasochism and Master-slave.

It’s all very confusing and for an old fossil like me; I just like to abbreviate it to kinky.

Now, I understand that kink is not everyone’s cup of tea, and you can take that however you wish. But it raises an important question: What is and what is not “sexual orientation”?

For me, I believe my kink is a big part of my sexuality, and as such, it’s part of who I am. In fact, most of the books I have written dwell at length on that issue since it is the one that always prompts the most questions when I am speaking to various groups.

Do You Belong in the BDSM Community?
By Sensuous Sadie

A while back, my dear friend Graham bestowed upon me his entire collection of kinky toys. Some of it I already had such as the crops and cuffs, but a few items were wonderfully new: a horsehair flogger and a round passing chain, so heavy yet cool against my skin. I was surprised that he would give all this away, after all you never know when the need might arise. And then, I wonder how it is that anyone can come into the scene and go back out. My BDSM orientation is like being lesbian; it’s hard wired in. I figure by the time you actually have a locked chest in your livingr oom filled with leather accouterments, you pretty much have committed yourself to the lifestyle.

Graham has often said that he felt a bit false in the scene, maybe didn’t belong there, a belief which he bases on the behavior he observed at public events. The Dominants who clearly couldn’t control themselves, much less anyone else; the emotional dramas played out from weekend to weekend; and of course the usual smarmy politicking and gossiping. Unfortunately, I can’t really disagree with any of that.

This was posted to the South Plains Leather Fest yahoo group as something given when the poster was given his first leather. It is posted here as a tool for people to use.