Anne on BDSM Organizations

Anne is a well known Texas Master,previously involved in the National Leather Association in Austin. Under her direction the 1999 Texas Leather Pride event was a wonderful success pulling together people from all over the state and region. On a list-serv discussion, the issue of how clubs find members came up and the term "spamming" became part of the thread.

Having had the pleasure of lunch with Anne, I was pleased she granted permission for me to share this posting with The Whipping Post. While it does extol the virtues of NLA heavily. I think it is also a good reference point for understanding how the social aspects work in many areas. In groups sometimes fall into more than one category so as the old saying goes.. actual mileage may vary... so might your experience and local community.

List Serv thread: "Spamming for memberships in a BDSM group is, IN MY OWN OPINION, bad!"

Anne: Of course it's bad, but it's also a non-issue because it simply doesn't happen in my experience, anywhere at any time, in all the years I've been involved with the BDSM community.

Meanwhile, with the vague initial complaint that clubs are "trolling" by simply asking people they meet in the scene to attend social functions or come to educational presentations has made everyone on the list feel targeted because every organization does this in one way or another . .
.

And we are fortunate that we can hear about BDSM events so easily now.
And there are so many different clubs and different *kinds* of organizations to choose from.

(1) The majority are social or party clubs. Some of these also try to include education. They tend to have the most members -- can have all the members they want because playing is what everyone wants to do -- and if you are invited to something, it is generally a get-acquainted social before being invited to a play party.

(2) Then there are others that are support or discussion groups or whose main purpose is education. These groups are much smaller, unfortunately, because fewer people are willing to work to provide an educational forum. If you are invited to such a group it will be to a presentation of some kind. And these groups often will be freer with invitations to their educational events because of their service purpose and because fewer problems are likely to arise at more public workshops than at play parties.

(3) There are private clubs where membership is "by invitation only". You are proposed for membership by someone who knows you, voted on, and invited in. It is considered an honor. These clubs often don't have web sites, and they want to stay small and private. Most people don't hear about them, or if they do, they hear that such and such a group in raising money for charity or doing some other kind of community service, etc.

(4) Then there is the National Leather Association -- the only leather organization that is international in scope and has political action, service, and education for the whole community as its principle purpose. Its purpose is to support the whole leather community, all its organizations and all the people who choose in their own individual ways to be involved in some form of BDSM or fetish lifestyle, work to improve the image of the leather community and defend the rights of consenting adults to engage in any safe and sane activity of their choosing regardless of the social stigma attached to it. And while you will see ads, etc., encouraging people to join and support NLA, NLA works for all members of the leather community whether they are dues-paying members supporting NLA or not.

This organization has some important accomplishments to its credit --
for example --

A. Coining the phrase "safe, sane, and consensual" in 1987-88 and launching the international education campaign to make it the single touchstone of everyone in the leather community.

B. Getting the American Psychological Association to change the description of sadism and masochism in its official diagnostic manual and take away the stigma of mental illness.

C. Founding the Law Project (Spencer Bergstadt specifically) to serve as a reference point for s/m and law issues throughout the community everywhere and raise funds and help to defend any leather person whose rights are jeopardized because of his or her involvement in the leather lifestyle.

D. Beginning, in the last five years, an educational campaign to distinguish s/m from abuse and also to help lessen genuine instances of physically or emotionally abusive relationships that show up in all communities, including leather, and provide help and understanding for the victims

E. and other things, too, but this is getting too long

So there are lots of different organizations with different purposes, ranging from just having a good time to making the world less hostile to how the leather community just has a good time.

Let's celebrate the options. And remember that we don't have to choose just one.

Anne