Essex ferry across Lake Champlain to Burlington, Vermont, May 2009. Photo by Eric Francis.

I began the life I am living in 1983, when I left a summer job that August at age 19. I got in my car in Silver Bay, NY on Lake George, ready for the long drive to Buffalo. Without knowing quite how, I had resolved to take over student politics and publishing. This was perhaps a bit ambitious given that it’s the largest public university in New York State, but I felt a calling. That was at the beginning of my junior year, a very good year when I lived in Goodyear Hall.

My girlfriend that summer was Mary Liz Austin, who was also an ‘emp’ at Silver Bay Association, an old Christian conference center. As I got in my car to drive off, she said, “I hope you find God soon.”

(Image courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society)

I'm behind on everything, and every time I manage to take a day where I swear I'll catch up, I get sidetracked by some other huge thing. But this Thursday I'll be presenting at a conference hosted by Chicago's very own LGBT community center, Center on Halsted: "The 2009 Alternative Sexualities Conference: Cultural Competence and Clinical Issues". I, and some other people in the community, will be speaking about the role of communities in the BDSM experience. I can't possibly get sidetracked from that, and I'm pretty excited about it!

Now I've said before, and I say as often as I can, that BDSM communities are filled with many different voices -- plus, there are many BDSM communities out there, not just one. I hope no one ever takes me as "speaking for BDSM" or accurately describing every possible BDSM community out there. But there are some elements common in the BDSM subculture, and some very general splits that I often find myself noticing within it. (I do welcome other voices, ideas, additions, or disagreements with what I'm about to say! Feel free to leave comments! Especially disagreements -- I relish getting different perspectives on the BDSM scene and questioning my own assumptions. Absolutely relish it. Delicious.)

Lincoln Journal Star - Omaha couple to allow 8-year-old to live as girl.

By the Associated Press
Sunday, May 17, 2009 - 07:55:34 pm CDT

OMAHA, Neb. — A west Omaha couple says their 8-year-old son has asked for years to wear dresses and change his name, so they’re enrolling him in a new school where he can live openly as a girl.

The parents say their middle child is transgender, and he’s asked to be called a girl since age 4.

The Heart of Polyamory

By Millie Jackson

I was introduced to the concept of sexual literacy as a member of Indiana University’s Campus Coalition for Sexual Literacy, one of four pilot programs launched in 2008 by the National Sexuality Research Center (NSRC).  A term coined by Dr. Ruth Westheimer, “sexual literacy” was developed by the NSRC and is described in its literature (www.nsrc.sfsu.edu) as “a new model for sexual health, sexuality education, and sexuality research.”  With the vision of a “sexually happy, healthy and well society”, the NSRC set out on its public mission in 2003 “to equip advocates, academics, and researchers with the knowledge, skills and resources to improve lifelong sexual literacy and sexual well being” using a “positive, integrated, and holistic view of sexuality from a social justice perspective.”

My understanding of sexual literacy expanded when I recently attended the NSRC’s first ever Sexual Literacy Midwestern Regional Training and Conference held in Bloomington at Indiana University (home of the famed Kinsey Institute).   The conference’s stated intention was to connect students, researchers, and advocates working in the field of sexuality, to introduce us to the various advocacy and sexuality research going on in our community, and to teach us how to use the sexual literacy framework as guidelines for our advocacy and research.