I was driving out of Manhattan yesterday after picking up 2 sick foster cats from PetCo at Union Square. Yes, that's how I spend too much of my time. About two blocks from the Midtown Tunnel, I heard on the radio that people were protesting last month's verdict on the shooting of Sean Bell (the unarmed black man who was shot by three police officers, of which two of them were black). The protesters had just blocked the onramp to the Queensborough Bridge, shutting down traffic. As I crossed 2nd Avenue on 36th Street, I saw a dozen police officers standing there staring south.

Down 2nd Ave, a block away, a crowd of people were marching towards me. It looked like at least a hundred people spilling off the sidewalk into the avenue. They were carrying white signs without the sticks, because that's illegal in NYC. I zipped into the tunnel just as they were arriving to shut down traffic behind me coming in from 36th Street.

I have to say my first feeling was relief. I really didn't want to get blocked from getting out of Manhattan during rush hour. I had to get these cats to the vet, go pick up my thyroid prescription, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure the drivers who got blocked behind me felt the same way – "Why inconvenience me? I had nothing to do with the Sean Bell verdict."

But as I drove home, I realized it was a really smart move. How many protests have I attended that got NO attention whatsoever from the media or officials? I remember the huge peace march near the United Nations that Kel and I went to prior to the US invasion of Iraq. There were at least 100,000 people. Block after block of 1st Avenue was filled with protesters and late arrivals were being routed up to the 60's to get onto 1st Ave. But we were orderly and didn't block cross streets or the bridges and tunnels.

Afterwards I had to search to find the briefest mention of the enormous protest. Only local rags in NYC carried it. And the number of people was grossly underestimated by the media and police. CNN showed a few stragglers, completely misrepresenting the scope of the march. It sucked in every way possible that our message was blocked by those in power.

But I woke up this morning and found that under a thousand protesters had done such a good job in shutting down the rush-hour commute that it's a top news story today. Al Sharpton got arrested. I'm not a big fan of his, but whoever thought up this idea for a protest – a peaceful pray-in at the onramps of bridges and tunnels – is brilliant in my book.

What do you want to bet that the people who were blocked from leaving Manhattan don't feel the same?

I went to SINSations in Leather in Chicago last weekend with Kel, then came home and promptly got so sick I've been in bed ever since. I'm still feeling punky, but there was one thing I saw at the event that I keep thinking about. Actually, I saw LOTS of wild and wonderful things - Lovely Rita and Femcar top the list!

But this one was new to me. Self-suspension bondage. Have you ever seen it?

Kel and I wandered back to the play space late on Saturday when it was nearly empty. There was one woman there alone – with Lochai
and another guy practicing body harnesses on Kate and her friend nearby. This lone woman proceeded to tie herself up and suspend herself, stretching up to her toes to get the rope through the hoop. At one point she dragged a chair over with her foot to stand on it. She ended up hanging upside-down with one foot bound to her butt. It was graceful, like a silent ballet. And she did it really fast. Wow! Kel and I were mesmerized, and the remaining people in the ballroom ended up gathering with us to watch.

You can see some of Lochai's suspension photos here.

I seem to be going from event to event lately. Tomorrow, Wednesday evening, I'll be at GMSMA's Forum on Erotic Fiction at the Center (13th Street and 7th Ave in NYC). I'll be reading from one of my books – maybe I'll read the suspension scene from To Serve and Submit.

In case you haven't seen it, the NY Post ran an article about a man who suffered a mishap while in bondage at the Nutcracker pro-domination house in NYC. He was left alone while in bondage (a big no-no!) and his foot slipped out of his high heel shoe, causing him to choke on his collar that was tied to an eye-hook.

Okay, this is a newsworthy story - certainly questions of whether this happens often (no, or there would be stories every day about BDSM accidents), whether pro-domination is legal in NYC (yes it is) and whether there are safety standards to keep people from being harmed (definitely, including the standard practice that you're not supposed to leave someone alone when they're in bondage).

But the Post didn't ask those questions. Instead, their reporters managed to get the guy's real name and details of his life and outed him, along with contacting his wife to tell her what had happened.

And the Post's response to this invasion of privacy? According to the paper's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein: "The Post will happily name every adult caught in a dog collar."

Shame on the NY Post!

Here's the links to Conde Nast's Portfolio Media Blog which condemns the Post's practice.

And the latest Post article.

My sister Lisa Wright DeGroodt is also an author. She's written several books in her Quest series, fantasy novels about an alternate land where good battles evil with the help of ordinary humans.

Lisa was just featured on the Leaky Cauldron’s weekly Pottercast. Leaky Cauldron is the official Harry Potter podcast and is one of the top podcasts on I-tunes. The episode is now available for downloading: http://pottercast.the-leaky-cauldron.org

She mentions how I sent her the first Harry Potter book and told her she had to read it because it was the same genre she was writing in. I'm just editing her 5th book now, Land Quest, and it's great. Charm Quest, the 4th book is going to be published in a couple of weeks. Her website is here. Check it out!

If you're wondering why I don't update my journal very often, here's everything I did for NCSF in the last quarter of 2007...

Media Report – Sept-Dec 2007
by Susan Wright

I responded to 6 Incident Response requests – dealing with 2 individuals, a hotel trying to break a contract, and attacks on 2 clubs and a large event.

I did 6 interviews – Including with the Associated Press in Boston, The Bay Area Reporter, 1010 Wins in NYC, and The Colbert Report about Leather Weekend Street Fair in NYC. I agreed to alert the TCR producer about any large media incident we would be willing to discuss on-air with them.

I gave 3 media trainings via the phone, and arrangements were made for me to give 1 in-person media training for the board of a large BDSM organization in April 2008.

I responded to 11 inquires for information on BDSM statistics for: the Hawaii Department of Health, a PhD dissertation, a student documentary, and a clinical psychology student. Plus an inquiry about removing Sexual Sadism, Sexual Masochism, and Fetishism from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistic Manual IV-TR.

The Media Committee approved 6 press releases that I wrote which included information about what NCSF does for the community. I broadcast 1 Action Alert in support of Folsom Street Fair calling for letters in support of Miller Brewing for being a sponsor of the Fair.

Mother Jones reports that Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee hates sadomasochists (as well as homosexuals, pedophiles and necrophiliacs). And environmentalists, pornographers and atheists.

Huckabee wrote in his 1998 children’s book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence: "It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations — from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia." He also wrote, "Abortion, environmentalism, AIDS, pornography, drug abuse, and homosexual activism have fragmented and polarized our communities." Huckabee also claims that "equality in the workplace has ironically worked against women in innumerable ways."

Since I'm a woman who happens to be a kinky, bi, atheist, environmentalist who helped file a lawsuit challenging obscenity law on the Internet... do you think he's talking about me? If so, where's my institutional support? Where's my public endorsement, god damn it?

Tags: bdsm

I'll be at GMSMA's Leatherfest this weekend at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center from 3-9pm. I'll be giving a workshop on Sensationalized Sex from 4:15-5:30pm - it's a look at the past 10 years of NCSF's media activism, and the strategies we've developed to combat the way the media encourages the stigma about alt sex. I'm bringing copies of the Concerned Women for America's press release about My Viscious Valentine in 2002, when they declared the event hazardous to the health and reporters repeated their lies. I'll also bring the Missouri State Senate resolution that barred BDSM activities in the state - which NCSF got shelved. Plus much more!

I love GMSMA because my earliest activist mentors were members - Barry Douglas, Bruce Marcus and David Weinbaum. GMSMA was the first group I asked to join NCSF when I formed the organization. I knew if GMSMA didn't get involved, I didn't have much of an idea. But they did, and have been staunch supporters ever since.

I'm also one of only three women who are members of Gay Male SM Activists. I was given an honorary membership in the late 90s along with Lolita. Jo Arnone, Leather Pride Night's auctioneer for decades, is the other honorary member.

Speaking of LPN, while you're at GMSMA's Leatherfest, check out the Leather Pride Night Flea Market! This is the first year we're having our infamous Flea Market at Leatherfest instead of LPN in June. But since we moved to Splash! for the big auction, there's no space to produce the Flea Market at the same time. I love the Flea Market - you can't get better deals anywhere.

I hope to see you there!

Tags: bdsm, ncsf

This was posted on the SM-act list yesterday: Miller Brewery Withdraws Support for Homosexual Festival; Catholic League Ends Boycott. This Lifesite article follows up their previous attack against Miller for sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair, a "sadomasochistic, anti-Christian homosexual parade which regularly includes full nudity and public sex acts."

I was bummed because I wrote and broadcast the NCSF Action Alert asking people to write supportive letters to Miller, thanking them for sponsoring Folsom Street Fair. I was cc'ed over 60 letters in return, and there's no telling how many were sent without cc'ing me - a great response from the BDSM-leather community.

So Lifesite says Miller caved to the Catholic League boycott, right? Wrong. When you go to the Catholic League's website, their statement ending the boycott quotes Miller apologizing for the events that took place at the fair in addition to the poster. Miller basically said "sorry you're offended," one of the most non-apologies that exists. This Catholic League boycott ended as all their others seem to, with a fizzle.

Miller is still sponsoring Folsom Street Fair. The Lifesite article was spin on top of spin. I guess they didn't want to end the boycott without shouting VICTORY! Reminds me of Bush's Victory banner in Iraq. And they're not the only ones. It boggles my mind how people can straight-up lie, yet justify to themselves that they're so righteous and moral. It must be how they keep their religious extremist foot-soldiers in fighting form for the next sex-negative rampage they decide to go on.

Tags: action alert, ncsf

I wrote an article entitled "I Know It When I See It" that was just published in Skin Two magazine. Barbara Nitke's photos are also included in the issue.

Obscenity law is absurd – it's the only victimless crime that is judged according to subjective criteria. Sure, it's up to juries to judge intent when it comes to things like homicide or manslaughter, but at least in those cases there's a definitive reason (a dead body) to prosecute someone. But no one knows if they're breaking obscenity law because according to the Miller standard, the criteria for judging obscenity is completely subjective. You're judged according to "local community standards" and no one knows exactly what those standards are until a jury gets together and decides on each case.

What kind of law is that??? Community authorities are supposed to establish laws and regulations, not some random group of 12 people in a jury.

The reason I'm so concerned is because sadomasochism is on the short list of sexually explicit materials that the Department of Justice asks Attorney Generals to prosecute. Once again, the BDSM community is on the cutting edge, and we're the ones getting cut.

Participate in the Survey of Violence & Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities

September 19, 2007 – New York, NY - Susan Wright and Larry Iannotti would like to announce the launch of the second national Survey of Violence & Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities, being conducted in cooperation with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. This survey includes all of the questions asked on NCSF's ground-breaking 1998 Violence & Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities survey, and includes new questions on personal, business, and Internet discrimination experienced by BDSM-leather-fetish practitioners.

The link to the survey is on NCSF's website: www.ncsfreedom.org

Please take a minute to fill out this anonymous survey even if you have not been a victim of violence or discrimination. Demographic data and information about participation in a variety of BDSM-leather-fetish activities are also being gathered. This survey will be distributed for one year, and the results will be released in early 2009.

The results of this survey will be analyzed and compared to the 1998 survey, which found significant discrimination and violence occurring against BDSM-leather-fetish practitioners. The data may be used in court obscenity cases to prove that sexual minorities have been chilled on the Internet because of fear of prosecution. The survey also includes space for individuals to write about the discrimination they have faced, which will be helpful in illustrating the consequences of the negative stereotypes about BDSM-leather-fetish activities.

The survey is available on Survey Monkey (a secured survey hosting website that is used by the professional community) and can be accessed through the NCSF website: www.ncsfreedom.org You can contact surveybdsm@gmail.com to receive hard copies for your event or to distribute to your members.

Please help this community-wide effort by sending this announcement to your email list.

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Larry Iannotti, LCSW, is a professional social scientist and practicing therapist getting his doctoral degree through the City University of NY. Susan Wright is the Media Spokesperson for NCSF, and is accredited as a research assistant affiliated with CUNY. For more information, please call Susan at 917-848-6544, or Larry at 212-465-1917.