Your Rights. Your Privacy. Your Freedom.
 

Media Update – August 26, 2004

   1. Alternative Lifestyle Gets Its Voice

   2. Beauty & Submission

   3. Where The Republicans Roam

   4. Former flower shop owner appeals sex-torture conviction

   5. Kinky Condo Scion Sued

   1. Alternative Lifestyle Gets Its Voice

   2. Beauty & Submission

   3. Where The Republicans Roam

   4. Former flower shop owner appeals sex-torture conviction

   5. Kinky Condo Scion Sued

 

Alternative Lifestyle Gets Its Voice:

 

Swinger Portal Launches the First of Its Kind Weekly Online Magazine

PRNewswire via Yahoo News

August 26, 2004

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Alternative lifestyle portal BayCouples.com, a popular website that helps couples find other couples who accept the swinging lifestyle, has announced the industry's first weekly online magazine – LifestyleVoice.com.

 

LifestyleVoice.com is a fresh and innovative magazine targeting the alternative lifestyle community. All content will be produced by BayCouples.com staff writers, ranging from swinger community-related news to instructional editorials. A spicy diary of a swinging couple, Kate and Chris, will also be featured in every issue of the magazine.

 

[cont.]

 

To read this article, go to:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040826/phth014_1.html

To respond, write to: eric@baycouples.com

Beauty & Submission

 

by Maria Isabel Pita (review of her work)

eMediaWire

August 25, 2004

 

In a desire to tell the truth and dispel negative stereotypes about the life of a sex slave, Maria Isabel Pita wrote The Story of M… A Memoir, and her intensely erotic life with the man of her dreams continues now in Beauty & Submission, a vividly detailed sexual and philosophical account of her second year of training as a slave to her Master and soul mate.

 

"A sex slave is very often a woman who dares to admit to herself exactly what she wants. Absolute submission to love requires a mysterious strength of character that is a far cry from the stereotype of sex slaves as mindless doormats with no self-respect. Before I entered the BDSM lifestyle with the man I now call "my Master" as casually as other women say "my husband", I did not believe a sex slave could lead a normal, healthy life. I thought my dreams of true love and my desire for a demanding Master were like matter and anti-matter cancelling each other out. I have since learned otherwise, and Beauty & Submission continues the detailed account of my ascent into submission as an intelligent woman with an independent spirit who is now also willingly and happily a masterful man's love slave. I have no other Master except Stinger, and I am his one-and-only slave. Some men give women engagements rings, Stinger forged a silver collar and a lock for me to which only he has the key."

 

[cont.]

 

To read this article, go to:

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/9/emw151845.htm

To respond, write to: RKASAK@aol.com

Where The Republicans Roam:

 

Landmarks? Museums? Galleries? How about some real cultural institutions

by A.J. Daulerio

New York Press

August 24, 2004

 

Master Steelow has no idea the convention is happening next week. His small, boxy frame is pacing around the floor of 219 Flamingo East early on a Wednesday night glad-handing and chatting up the regular attendees to his weekly Flesh Theater event at the small, dark, dirty bar in the East Village. He's only half-heartedly listening to some of my questions about any special events planned when the Republican party tramples through town.

 

In between conversations with drag queens and leather-clad mistresses, he keeps asking what exactly the Republican National Convention is, when it's going to be and how many people are supposed to attend. Once he realizes it's the notoriously stuffy Republicans that are coming, he's confused about why he's being interviewed. He says he has no plans to promote his parties and events around the convention, but he looks concerned.

 

"Should I be doing that? I didn't really think this was their scene," he says.

 

He assures me, though, that the delegates are most welcome to his events, which cater to "the true alternative" lifestylists. He says white-collar Republican types frequent many of the public and private parties he organizes throughout the city. In the early portions of this particular Wednesday night, there are a few white, button-downed, middle-aged attendees who shamefully sip their drinks at the bar, or sit in a booth and wait for something to happen.

 

[cont.]

 

To read this article, go to:

http://www.nypress.com/17/34/news&;columns/feature.cfm

To respond, write to: editorial@nypress.com

Former flower shop owner appeals sex-torture conviction

 

by Kevin O'Hanlon

Associated Press

via The Grand Island Independant

August 24, 2004

 

LINCOLN, Neb. – A former flower shop owner who sexually assaulted, tortured and held a Texas man captive in the basement of his store says his conviction should be vacated because his victim agreed to such treatment.

 

Roger Van of Wayne was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison on several counts, including sexual assault and false imprisonment, related to the 2001 incident.

 

In an appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court, defense lawyer Melissa Wentling alleges that Van's conviction was unconstitutional because the "Nebraska Legislature did not intend these statutes to apply to conduct that occurs during a private, consensual relationship" involving bondage and torture.

 

The high court is to hear arguments in the case on Sept. 10.

 

During Van's trial, his lawyers argued that the 36-year-old Houston man consented to being beaten, bound and branded.

 

Before meeting in Wayne, Van and the man exchanged scores of messages and negotiated a no-limits relationship involving torture and bondage, defense lawyers said.

 

[cont.]

 

To read this article, go to:

http://ap.theindependent.com/pstories/state/ne/20040824/2392979.shtml

To respond, write to: editor@theindepedent.com

Kinky Condo Scion Sued

 

by Rich Calder

New York Post

August 23, 2004

 

The son of a billionaire printing-company mogul who was found to be running a secret S&M sex club for gay men from his penthouse apartment is now being sued by the other condo owners.

 

A corporation set up to manage the posh 12-story condo complex in Gramercy Park has filed suit against H. Richard Quadracci – the subject of a Post investigation – in an attempt to get him to stop running his kinky Winter Palace club, saying it violates the condo association's bylaws.

 

"The unit owners respect his right to live the way he chooses, but when you have people coming there paying for sex, for rooms to have sex, it damages the property values of the building," said Mark Freyberg, a lawyer for the condo association. "The man has completely attempted to take over the entire building."

 

Quadracci, 40, has set up rooms for paying customers that connect to a 1,000-square-foot "playroom" equipped with a cross, bondage boards, harness power hoists and other X-rated paraphernalia, according to the club's voyeur-friendly Web site.

 

The Winter Palace club also arranges encounters with "trusted professionals" from the S&M community, the site said. One pro, Master Justice, said in an e-mail obtained by The Post that he charges $200 an hour for his time, separate from the club's fee. The three-level sex vault – which includes the rooftop – is equipped with dozens of cameras that route steamy images to screens throughout the club and the Internet.

 

[cont.]

 

To read this article, go to:

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29317.htm

To respond, write to: letters@nypost.com

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 media@ncsfreedom.org