1. Maury County woman charged with bondage death of husband
2. County Commissioners revoke nightclub’s liquor license
3. Larry Flynt: ‘The Republicans are more fun, you know’
4. City Shuts Down “Sex Palace”
5. Let’s talk about sex
6. The ABCs of sexual orientation
7. IDW Releases “Dominatrix” Collection
8. Success! We love success!
9. Union Street swingers club for sale
10. Sex scandal puts future of Formula One official Max Mosley in doubt
11. Salem dominatrix given probation on prostitution charge
1. Maury County woman charged with bondage death of husband
2. County Commissioners revoke nightclub’s liquor license
3. Larry Flynt: ‘The Republicans are more fun, you know’
4. City Shuts Down “Sex Palace”
5. Let’s talk about sex
6. The ABCs of sexual orientation
7. IDW Releases “Dominatrix” Collection
8. Success! We love success!
9. Union Street swingers club for sale
10. Sex scandal puts future of Formula One official Max Mosley in doubt
11. Salem dominatrix given probation on prostitution charge
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.
Maury County woman charged with bondage death of husband
Associated Press report
via Knoxville News Sentinel (Tennessee)
April 23, 2008
COLUMBIA, Tenn. – A Maury County woman has been charged with reckless
homicide for what her attorney says was the accidental asphyxiation of
her husband after he consented to be bound and gagged.
“The whole family is upset with what occurred”, Samuel Patterson, an
attorney representing 25-year-old Rebecca Bargy, told Columbia newspaper
The Daily Herald. “We stand by the fact that this was an accident”.
According to the arrest warrant, Rebecca Bargy placed duct tape over
James Bargy’s mouth and eyes, put a ball gag in his mouth and then tied
a bandage around his head, leaving only his nostrils showing.
She also tied his hands and legs behind his back. She then left him for
20 hours.
“Apparently, this was not the first time it had happened”, Maury County
Sheriff’s Detective Anthony Bailey said of the bondage.
Authorities found the 29-year-old’s body around 4 p.m. Saturday. Rebecca
Bargy faces up to 12 years in prison if found guilty.
“The proof will show that James consented to this being done to him and
that he was an active participant”, Patterson said.
But detectives told Nashville television station WTVF Rebecca Bargy was
having an affair with another man.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/23/maury-county-woman-charged-bondage-death-husband/
To respond, write to: the editors at letters@knews.com or comment at
the bottom of the article
County Commissioners revoke nightclub’s liquor license
by Andra Coberly
Fort Collins Now (Colorado)
April 23, 2008
Once spending his nights dealing with battling gangs, dance-offs, boozy
teens, bondage and throngs of brawling college students, Andy Neely is
now looking for some peace and quiet.
“I think I’m gonna join a softball team”, he said moments after the
Larimer County Commissioners revoked the liquor license of Osiris, the
Mulberry Street nightclub that Neely owned for less than two years.
In early March, the county charged Osiris with 31 potential violations
of the state liquor license code and ordered a show cause hearing to
consider if the club’s license should be suspended or taken away. After
testimony from Larimer County Sheriff’s Office deputies detailing a
variety of illegal and salacious activities, commissioners Kathay
Rennels and Glenn Gibson found Osiris in violation of the code in 24 of
those incidents.
Prior to the beginning of testimony last week, defense attorney Adele
Reester asked commissioners to suspend the license so that Neely could
hand it over to new owners. But the commissioners opted to revoke the
liquor license with hope that a new owner could start with a clean
slate.
“I think it was a bad sense of judgment. That’s the best way I can
describe it”, Rennels said of how Osiris was managed. “This was your
opportunity to clean it up. I hope to see (new owners) start over”.
But the most aberrant incident deputies described was the club’s fetish
ball, a night dedicated to leather, whips and S&M.
“There was a male on a table being shocked by a female in his genitals
area, buttocks and around his body. And I observed another male who was
being paddled on his butt with a large leather paddle”, McMurray told
commissioners, saying that she could see an electrical current coming
from the shocking device. “There was another male on a large A-frame
device that was being tied up by his genitals and around his waist”.
She told the court that the manager on duty showed no sign of concern
about the scene. The police report included more details of the night,
including a woman being set on fire.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.fortcollinsnow.com/article/20080423/NEWS/655212525
To respond, write to: the author at acoberly@fortcollinsnow.com or the
editors at letters@fortcollinsnow.com or comment at bottom of article
Larry Flynt: ‘The Republicans are more fun, you know’
by Rachel Urganga
Los Angeles Daily News
April 20, 2008
After all these years, Larry Flynt says he’s bored with pornography.
So what’s his new turn-on? Attacking hypocrisy – “the biggest danger” to
American democracy – by exposing politicians such as former New York
Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his $4,000-an-hour prostitute, and Idaho Sen.
Larry Craig and his men’s room peccadilloes.
While he’s at it, Flynt would like to run Cardinal Roger Mahony out of
town after first tarring and feathering him over his role in the
Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal.
Q: The Democrats aren’t angels, but the Monica Lewinsky affair looks
like Sesame Street compared with what Craig, Sen. David Vitter, Rep.
Mark Foley and other Republicans are alleged to have done. Are
Republicans just kinkier?
A: Republicans say their prayers before supper and before they go to
bed, and they’re advised that God will punish them if they don’t behave.
So they keep all that pent-up sexual frustration inside them, and they
are never able to let it go.
They’ve got all that baggage that’s attached with a ton of guilt, and
they can’t get rid of it. They accuse me of being biased and always
outing the Republicans and not the Democrats. But it has nothing to do
with it. The Republicans are more fun, you know. …
If someone takes a position contrary to the way they live their private
life. If they give you the old family values thing and they have three
mistresses, then to me they’re a hypocrite. And I think the biggest
danger that faces democracy is hypocrisy.
Q: Do you think there are pornographers out there now who have gone too
far? Such as extreme porn, where there are simulated scenes of women
getting hurt?
A: What some of the producers of porn are doing is they are giving the
entire industry a bad reputation. … When you start messing around with
kids, when you start doing extreme bondage cases, when you have rape
scenes and things like that, to me they’re totally bad. I’d like to see
them come down hard on some of the guys, especially the guys who are
exploiting children.
Q: Are you OK with 12-year-old girls walking around with T-shirts that
say “Porn Star”?
A: We sell those shirts. Girls like them.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8995860
To respond, write to: the author at rachel.uranga@dailynews.com or the
editors at dnopinion@dailynews.com or comment at bottom of article
City Shuts Down “Sex Palace”
by staff writer
KTLA TV (Los Angeles, CA)
April 18, 2008
Officials in Orange County have shut down an 8,000 square foot
photography studio because they say it was being used as a “sex party
palace.”
The underground club, known as “Club Amnesty” advertises weekly sex
parties for couples. City Attorney David DeBerry says the studio has
operated without a proper business license for more than three years and
is in violation of numerous city and fire codes.
‘Club Amnesty”, located at 1548 Brian Street int the city of Orange,
operated out of CW Studios, a nude and semi-nude modeling studio.
The club advertises itself on its web site, which is no longer in
service, as an “on premise Lifestyle members-only associated club” where
patrons “can expect to see various displays of nudity and sexual
activity.” The term “lifestyle” is a common euphemism for “swinging” or
“wife swapping”.
[continued]
To read this entre article, go to:
http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-sexpalace,0,7478767.story
To respond, go to:
http://ktla.trb.com/about/station/ktla-stationmanagement-email,0,5835532.htmlstory
Let’s talk about sex
by Lily Burana (book review)
The Houston Chronicle (Texas)
April 18, 2008
In a culture in which the pornographic has become predictable, it seems
downright cheeky to write and publish a sex book b not because it’s
difficult but because, to cop an exhausted term, eros has jumped the
shark. Is there really anything new to say about sex?
…Brian Alexander think[s] there is.
…Brian Alexander’s America Unzipped covers the same
even-kinky-sex-is-as-wholesome-as-apple-pie territory as HBO’s
long-running docu-series Real Sex, with an emphasis on the challenges of
self-discovery.
The book feels at once forward-thinking and oddly dated, in a 1990s “sex
positive” kind of way.
Ostensibly, we’re to be comforted by the notion that nothing’s shocking
anymore, and that behind the Pottery Barn curtains of middle-class
America, people are gettin’ it on.
Throughout his travels in sexual America, Alexander, who is MSNBC’s
“Sexploration” columnist, points out with something akin to delight that
a fair number of kinksters are avowed conservatives – politically,
anyway.
Toward the end, he finds the limits of his own tolerance when he comes
upon the sight of a male submissive at a BDSM (bondage domination
sado-masochism) club in Seattle: “He is lying there in her arms curled
like an infant against a mother’s breast, and all I can think of is
wanting to slap him so hard he’ll know what real pain is. … This is
the end of my journey and I get this guy, a white-haired, bearded,
sixtysomething ‘computer guy’ nuzzling into her lap as if he’s trying to
return to the womb? This is what we’ve all been looking for? Mommy?”
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/books/reviews/5710325.html
To respond, write to: the editors at viewpoints@chron.com or comment
at the bottom of the article
The ABCs of sexual orientation
by Hardy Haberman (opinion column)
The Dallas Voice (Texas)
April 17, 2008
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.
Now it seems that the courts in Canada are taking that question
seriously and have agreed to hear a case that involved discrimination
against someone because of his BDSM involvement.
Vancouver resident Peter Hayes was recently denied a chauffeur’s permit
when he applied at the local courthouse. He was told that the denial
stemmed from a complaint that “the department had a record of a woman in
2003 who suggested he was involved in a cult”.
Hayes, a self-proclaimed pagan, told the official that the complaint was
filed by a former lover and that the “cult” was nothing more than the
title of a science fiction book: “Tarnsman of Gor” by John Norman.
Furthermore, Hayes was never contacted about the complaint.
The official went on to say the he was concerned about Hayes’ “paganism,
Wiccan magic, as well as role-playing, master-slave sexual practices”,
and said he would pose a threat to passengers both from his possible
attempts to recruit them into his “cult” and by his dangerous
activities.
Hayes has filed for protection under a law that prevents discrimination
based on sexual orientation and that’s where the controversy gets
interesting.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_8647.php
To respond, write to: the editor at nash@dallasvoice.com
IDW Releases “Dominatrix” Collection
by Staff Editor
Comic Book Bin
April 17, 2008
Rock legend Gene Simmons’ Dominatrix, his leather-clad heroine with an
attitude, promises not only compelling action but also to raise
thermometers a degree or two when she hits store shelves this April as a
trade paperback from IDW Publishing (www.idwpublishing.com) and Simmons
Comics Group (www.Simmons-Comics.com). This is definitely not your
father’s comic book. The ground-breaking first arc tells the story of a
professional dominatrix, Dominique Stern, who becomes ensnared in a
world of government cover-ups and international conspiracies. Simmons
describes the story as “T&A meets CIA.”
Dominatrix is the story of Dominique Stern. After a client loses his
composure during an intense session and blurts out top-secret
information, Dominique finds herself a reluctant superhero who must save
herself, her friends, the jerk who got her into the mess, and quite
possibly her country.
“‘Dominatrix’ came to me in a flash,” says Simmons. “Comic books and pop
culture in general have always toyed around with the
leather/rubber-bound heroine. It’s sexy and kick-ass. [But] they always
skirted the sexuality issue. I decided to meet it head-on, so to speak.”
Simmons based the character on a semi-real dominatrix he knows socially.
“After talking with her about the lifestyle,” he says, “[I] combined it
with clandestine Manchurian Candidate and Nick Fury’s Hydra stuff [a
super-spy from Marvel Comics], oh, yes, and pills. Special pills.”
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.comicbookbin.com/idwnews015.html
To respond, write to: editor@comicbookbin.com
Success! We love success!
by Mister Marcus
the Bay Area Reporter (Bay area, California)
April 17, 2008
There can be no less than tons of accolades for the local coordinating
committee of the 12th annual Leather Leadership Council. It took place
in San Francisco last weekend at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue.
At the risk of sounding like a braggadocio, there can be no less than
superior ratings for the group headed by co-chairs Pilar Leano and
R.S. and their committee, countless dedicated volunteers and
the generosity of scores of merchants and sponsors, individuals and a
force that quite possibly could not be mustered anywhere except in “the
city that knows how.” The glossy program created by Marc Johnson, which
was handed out to package holders, was my first hint that this committee
exceeded all expectations. A masterpiece and definitely a collector’s
item.
First off, the attendance of some 335 registered delegates is the
highest ever for the Leather Leadership Conference. Add three dynamic
and spirited speakers (Race Bannon, Richard Thorn, and Patrick Califia),
dozens of expert panelists in a score of interesting and important
tracks, and an avid number of people thirsting for the knowledge,
expertise and experience to make themselves better candidates for future
leadership roles in the “alive and well” leather/BDSM world.
Noted author, lecturer and the well-liked Bannon stepped in with less
than 24 hours notice to replace an ailing Guy Baldwin, who was touted as
the welcoming speaker.
It was interesting to note that Bannon, Thorn, and Califia were in tune
with each other in their delivered speeches. While not exactly an “old
guard” line-up, their words harkened to protocols of past generations
and the need to guard against undesirable personages who come on strong
but fail to “deliver” when it comes down to getting the job done.
While some people were turned off by these assertions, it’s too bad that
some cannot accept the truth about some of the misguided direction of
this era in some organizations. The burden of “donations” for any given
event/charity was stressed with no apologies. More than one
businessperson in attendance told of being hit on time after time for
prizes, gift certificates, money, and support.
Since the Leather Leadership Conference is touted as a learning
experience, hopeful astute and caring people who were in attendance will
not let these proclamations by the main speakers fall by the wayside.
You came to learn, so if you’re so blind that you can’t see what
seasoned leaders and experienced leather/BDSM experts are saying, you
didn’t learn anything.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=mrm&article=155
To respond, write to: the author at HatchetQ@aol.com or the
editors at news@ebar.com
Union Street swingers club for sale
by Michael Goot and Kathleen Moore
The Schenectady Daily Gazette (New York)
April 15, 2008
SCHENECTADY – The swingers club on Union Street may soon be shutting
down. Owner Robert Alexson is putting the building up for sale.
But he won’t leave until someone agrees to pay $270,000 for his
Victorian-style mansion, which is assessed for $125,700.
“If I don’t get my price, I’m staying”, he said after listing the
property with Collar City Auctions Realty on Monday.
Alexson said his decision to sell has nothing to do with his run-ins
with city officials over the parties he hosts where couples can swap
partners for sex. The city had told him he must move his parties out of
the residential neighborhood on Union Street by the end of October, but
he continued to party all winter without any apparent repercussions.
Alexson has insisted for years that the city cannot legally stop him
from running the parties.
“What I do in the privacy of my own house is none of their business”, he
said.
City officials disagree, but Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said
he was pleased by the news that Alexson would be shutting himself down.
“I hope he gets a quick sale”, Van Norden said.
Van Norden added that Alexson’s swinger parties, once a booming business
that Alexson said brought in more than a thousand dollars each weekend,
seem to have died down since the city told him to cease and desist.
“He’s not advertising parties anymore. He has advertised three bus
trips. It looked like it was really drying up”, Van Norden said.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/apr/15/0414SWINGERS/
To respond, write to: the authors at
http://www.dailygazette.com/staff/michael-goot/contact/
and
http://www.dailygazette.com/staff/kathleen-moore/contact/
or the editors at http://www.dailygazette.com/op_letter/
Sex scandal puts future of Formula One official Max Mosley in doubt
by Kim Murphy
The Los Angeles Times (California)
April 10, 2008
LONDON — The scandal probably would have been a ho-hum tale of sex and
bondage of little interest to jaded Europeans were it not for two
things. The man holding the whip was one of the most powerful men in
motor racing. And when he ordered his “prisoners” to submit, he was
speaking in a practiced German that called up disturbing images of a
distant past.
The man was Max Mosley, president of the international body that governs
Formula One racing — and the son of Oswald Mosley, the controversial
founder in the 1930s of the pro-Nazi British Union of Fascists.
Mosley’s five-hour encounter with five women in a bondage orgy has
prompted accusations of Nazi role-playing and engulfed the Formula One
world in a leadership crisis, prompting the sport’s ruling body
Wednesday to announce that its governing assembly would meet June 3 to
decide whether Mosley can keep his post.
The controversy heated up even further when a judge in Britain allowed
Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World to air on its website a videotape
excerpt of the encounter between Mosley and the women. The racing chief
says the session was a consensual adult gathering and the airing of the
tape an invasion of his privacy.
The newspaper also published an interview with a woman who said she was
one of several prostitutes hired by Mosley to pose as prisoners and Nazi
guards.
He has admitted having a sex session with the women but says it had
nothing to do with Nazism. He said he speaks German in parts of the
video because one of his sex partners was German.
The guard uniforms, he said, were not Nazi apparel but featured a modern
German air force jacket, while the women were wearing not concentration
camp uniforms but U.S. prison garb.
“It goes without saying that the so-called Nazi element is pure
fabrication. This will become crystal-clear when the matter comes to
trial,” Mosley said after filing suit against News of the World,
alleging invasion of privacy.
“I don’t think any of this should affect my work on motoring safety, the
environment or the sport,” he said. “I believe that 21st century adults
do not worry about private sexual matters as long as they are legal and
harmless.”
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/europe/la-fg-mosley10apr10,0,3089764.story
To respond, write to: the author at kim.murphy@latimes.com or the
editors at letters@latimes.com
Salem dominatrix given probation on prostitution charge
by Julie Manganis
The Salem News (Massachusetts)
April 9, 2008
SALEM – A Salem mother charged with prostitution last year when her
dominatrix business was slow will spend the next three months on
probation, after admitting that prosecutors had sufficient evidence for
a conviction against her.
But if Paula Webb stays out of further trouble during those three months
and pays a $50 assessment, the case will be dismissed, a Salem District
Court judge decided yesterday.
Prosecutors had been seeking a guilty finding and a year’s probation, as
well as restrictions on Webb’s use of the Internet. Judge Dunbar
Livingston rejected the prosecution’s requests, however.
Webb, 43, of 111/2 Albion St., was arrested a year ago after police –
acting on a tip from her husband – set up a sting in which Detective
Bill Jennings posed as a customer and arranged a meeting at their home
Webb’s then-husband had called police during a domestic dispute two
months before and told officers that his wife had a fully equipped
“dominatrix” dungeon, which he showed them. There were whips, ropes,
eyehooks and a couple of beds in the basement of the home, where Webb
lived with her husband and two young children.
Being a dominatrix is not illegal in Massachusetts. But when the
business, which Webb advertised on her own Web site, was slow, the
husband told police, Webb would advertise on a popular Internet bulletin
board as a prostitute.
Webb had tried unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed, arguing that
police had no legal basis to enter the home and transmit the
conversation between them to officers waiting outside by way of a wire.
Webb’s case had been scheduled for trial on June 4, but she and her
lawyer, Jennifer Koiles, showed up at court yesterday seeking to have
the case heard.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Satelmajer also asked the judge to impose a $500
fine and an order that she remove her Web sites and not create any new
Web sites while on probation.
Livingston did not grant those requests.
[continued]
To read this entire article, go to:
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_100223905.html
To respond, go to:
http://www.salemnews.com/contactus/local_story_015132129.html
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
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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. Comments to the editor
of this Update may be sent to keith@ncsfreedom.org.
###
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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,
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of their sexual expression.
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