By Susan Wright
279 reports and requests for help were received by NCSF in 2018. This is a significant increase compared to previous years:
170 requests in 2017
109 requests in 2016
198 requests in 2015
184 requests in 2014
NCSF maintains the confidentiality of those who come to us for help, however we balance that with the need to report the services we are providing and to provide the community with a record of where the need is the greatest. Here is a breakdown of the cases the IRR Team dealt with in 2018:
Criminal
107 people made reports & requested assistance, up by nearly 50% compared to 76 reports in 2017:
- 74 requests from people who reported an assault, sexual assault, stalking, harassment or vandalization involving BDSM or non-monogamy, requesting assistance in educating law enforcement, investigators, prosecutors and victim advocates or referrals for expert witnesses. In 2017, there were 57 reports.
- 29 people requested resources and referrals to assist in defending themselves against accusations of assault, sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, harassment, Restraining Order, parole violations or the appeals process. In 2017, there were 16 reports.
- 2 people needed help with sex worker related issues
- 2 sex-positive business-owners needed help after employees embezzled and threatened them
Groups
95 groups, events and businesses requested assistance or a member requested assistance with their group. That’s more than double the 42 reports in 2017. There were 24 reports in 2016, and 50 reports in both 2015 and 2014. Here are the reports for 2018:
- 26 Groups/Events received information on dealing with consent violations
- 25 Groups/Events were reporting a ban or inquiring about reports on a presenter/member
- 11 groups needed assistance with incorporation, by-laws or legal matters involving members including lawsuits and subpoenas
- 7 groups needed assistance in creating a consent policy for their group
- 6 people were protesting being banned by a group
- 5 people needed assistance resolving a consent incident with their group
- 4 groups had their event challenged through contract cancellation or threats of cancellation
- 3 groups asked for assistance in dealing with police outreach
- 2 groups needed resources and referrals for attorneys for their members
- 2 groups asked for assistance in doing outreach to local civic and community organizations
- 1 business was reported two separate times by a number of its members: regarding bulling and sexual harassment, and privacy issues
- 1 group was reported for outing its members
- 1 group reported discrimination when their bank suspended their account
Child Custody and Divorce
30 people requested help with child custody cases, and there was 1 divorce case. This is similar compared to 27 reports in 2017. There were 16 reports in 2016, 26 in 2015, and 37 in 2014.
- 18 involved parents who are kinky (6 with FetLife photos and 1 with photos on the cloud)
- 5 involved parents in non-moogamous relationships
- 2 involved both BDSM and non-monogamous relationships
- 3 involved sex work
- 1 involved same-sex marriage
- 1 involved CPS and a parent that identified as vanilla
- 1 divorce case involving a Master/slave contract
Civil
24 requests for assistance in civil issues compared to 13 in 2017:
- 5 people reported being outed (3 involved FetLife pics)
- 4 people needed employment attorneys to deal with discrimination due to BDSM (3) and non-monogamy (1)
- 2 involved Title IX issues for educators who discussed sex positive issues including BDSM
- 2 people needed attorneys to deal with civil legal matters.
- 2 people needed help with civic and community organizations
- 2 people were banned or had their account suspended by businesses
- 2 people needed legal options involving their polyamorous relationships
- 1 person needed help with photos that were posted without permission
- 1 educator was attacked when an event was attacked by religious political extremists
- 1 educator needed to find out the legality of a certain kind of BDSM play
- 1 person complained about social media discrimination
- 1 witness needed assistance regarding their participation in a criminal trial
Professionals
There were 22 requests about kink and nonmonogamy:
- 13 professionals requested education on BDSM, consent, ageplay, FOSTA/SESTA, and translation of NCSF resources into Hebrew, Greek and French to better serve their clients and present workshops for their professional groups. These requests came from researchers, professors, graduate students, therapists and victim advocacy agencies.
- 9 people requested referrals to kink and polyamory aware professionals
If you need NCSF’s help because of discrimination or to remove kink as a barrier to service, please contact our Incident Reporting & Response today! Email [email protected]
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