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For gods sake you freaks. So glad you are not moving to my neighbourhood. You are bad citizens and contrary to your beliefs you do nothing for the city. Just yourselves. Get off your kinky high horses and rejoin the rest of society. — Parents on Joe Howe
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2014.
17 Comments
Squirrels and cardinals running amok, again?
I’m assuming the OB lives in Highfield Park.
Dammit, I just read the OB’s handle *smacks forehead*
For those who don’t know, there was a fetish club looking to use a basement on Joe Howe drive for their purposes. The City permit department is being a bit moralistic and not making it possible for them to get the proper permits.
To each their own. Especially in the privacy of their own basement dammit. Shaddap OB!
Dear Parents of Joseph Howe: oh, fuck off. Do you honestly think this group of like-minded people care about your stink-eye disapproval? It’s not like they’d be dancing on your deck with whips, chains and midgets, twitwad. And I’ll bet your ankle biters are registering your over-the-top, intoleration reaction every step of the way. This is the 21st century, not the fucking 1950s.
okay girls, you bring the whips, chains, etc., i’ll bring the gorilla suit and whipped cream.
I think the OB’s comments were not so much anti kink so much as that this group of people was trying to sneak past the city’s zoning bylaws (@Scooter!Ahhhh, this was the reason they were not allowed in, the property was not zoned as commercial) by having someone “live” there and just have “parties” they were also referring to themselves as a non profit, comparing themselves to the likes of a community service group like Kiwanis, Lions or the Masons. Their assertion was that they offered kinky classes such as fisting to their community and the public so this made them a community service group.
I’m sorry, I agree with the OB, this is NOT community service, does nothing for Halifax as a city and only serves their own selfish and kinky needs.
Well, it may not derve our community but it may serve other communities, no?
They offer free fisting classes while you have to pay for mine (which are considerably better and far more fun).
Considering that there’s been a gay men’s bathhouse here in Halifax since 1975, I suspect it had everything to do with zoning and not the City’s fear of kink.
Zombies. It has to be zombies.
And all the girls think to themselves…”Oh great, a gorilla suit that smells like pee”.
get bent there fucky.
The club in question provides far more than fisting classes. They offer everything from BDSM 101: The Basics of Kink, right on through to sex/gender/body-positive workshops. The classes are not free, but the cost is minimal, to make it as accessible as possible. Their agenda is to educate as well as provide a safe environment for those with kinks (who INCLUDE trans folks, crossdressers, as well as all flavours of LBGT), to get together and socialize, as well as play.
In no way would it ever be an issue with the poor OB’s chidderins being exposed to various and sundry kink stuffs; club members are in no way interested in doing anything that public, for a variety of obvious reasons, not the least of which is COMMON FUCKING SENSE.
I’d like to recommend that the OB take their Victorian Era sensibility and go fuck themselves with it, but as they’re obviously not capable of understanding a simple thing like “adult consent-based community”, I’m sure they wouldn’t know how to go about insertion. So I’ll recommend they help themselves to a big, hot mug of shut-the-fuck-up instead.
@Cynical Skeptic: you’re right, educating people about safe sex, bodily fluid transmission, kink safety issues, supporting the local LGBT community, as well as providing a safe environment for those who are publicly shamed for being involved in an alternative lifestyle does nothing for Halifax as a city and only serves their own selfish and kinky needs. Obviously.
Source: I’m an ex-member (no longer local).
I think the original poster is sadly misinformed about what SOB is.
First let me mention SOB is NOT a sex club and sex is NOT allowed on the premises.
It provides a safe and friendly environment for people to come out and meet others like themselves. Allowing many to reach out and feel less like the freaks society has made them believe they are.
Folks show up in normal clothes and leave in normal clothes as to not freak out the neighbors.
The focus of many the SOB school of kink classes is basically “Well if you are going to do it lets teach you to do it in a way that is safe and consensual”. There have been classes on various topics. Almost everything is geared towards safety or mental wellbeing. Would you rather hear about people tying each other up and getting seriously hurt or would you rather people be taught how to do these things safely and in a controlled manner? There has been classes about communication, LGBT issues, and safe sex practices.
We hold parties where money is raised for various causes. Many of them *gasp* not kink related.
SOB also offers a free sexual assault support group. A safe place for those that have been hurt to come out and talk about it with others who understand without judgement or criticism.
So tell me again how we are bad citizens that do nothing for the city?
ms cupcake, sadly, I think that OP would prefer people get hurt in these activities.
Yes, we are freaks. Thank you for so gingerly pointing out that we are in fact different. Aren’t differences between people beautiful? They make us individuals, make us unique. Just because I like to be tied up in rope and have my hair pulled and the person next to me is a transsexual who enjoys the endorphin rush from having her bottom paddled, does not make us a danger to society.
We want to learn how to do these things safely and consensually, to ask questions without fear of criticism. kinksters are not, as a general population, out to harm anoyone. Just like anyone else, we search for a place robe who we are and to make meaningful connections.
Yes we are freaks, we are all mad, but you see, as I tell my son, normal is just a setting on the dryer.
*robe = where we…..I don’t know where that autocorrect came from….
I’ve yet to meet anyone so in command of their own life that they had the luxury of telling anybody else how to live theirs. Stay Calm and Freak On.
These days, it’s hard to throw around the words “normal” and “freak” when talking about the diversity and variety of life, interests and people.
For instance, let’s look at the Canadian family. With so many variations on what was once the nuclear structure, including blended families, “grandfamilies,”, families led by a single parent or by a lesbian or gay couple, and polyamorous households, the definition of that term is constantly broadening. Not only is it difficult for parents to help their kids navigate these shifts, especially because there aren’t a lot of resources for understanding families who seem, on the surface at least, to be different but to teach their children to learn tolerance and acceptance by example.
@Parents on Joe Howe: As a parent, I constantly reinforce that everyone has a right to make their own life choices and to live happy and meaningful lives. These ideas and concepts didn’t come to me by chance. They were learned. As the coordinator for the “School of Kink”, I would be happy to put together a lesson plan that would teach you things like friendship, ambivalence, peer pressure, self-awareness and empowerment, examining language, prejudice and privilege, as well learning tolerance and acceptance. Your kids will thank you.