Categories
English Sexual politics

UK report – August 2003

IML 2003 is official supporter of the ReviseF65 Project

Eric and Svein have been rallying support for SM human rights in the UK during august 2003. Representing the ReviseF65 project, they have held four workshops with in all more than fifty people attending. At all the workshops there were represented different gay and straight SM/fetish leaders and mental health specialists from several countries, and during August the number of members on the ReviseF65 mailing list has increased by 50 percent. One of the workshops received the visit of International Mr Leather, John Pendal. Afterwords he decided to support officially the ReviseF65 project.

International Mr Leather, John Pendal (picture left) published August 26th that ReviseF65 is one of five projects that he will support during the year he holds the title. This should provide a good opportunity for informing people about our project work.

John Pendal is one of very few Europeans who has been awarded International Mr Leather. He got the title at the IML contest in Chicago May 25th 2003. He has taken this year off, to give the role his full attention.

Eric and Svein met him at Europride in Manchester 2003. The ECMC leather club MSC Manchester Superchain had invited John to walk in front of their leather-section in the Europride parade Saturday 23rd 2003. For some time Eric and Svein have had mail contact with MSC‘s hon secretary Ian A. He helped us to get a location for our ReviseF65 workshop in Manchester. Friday 22nd Ian presented us to John (picture right) and Sunday John surprisingly attended our ReviseF65 workshop at Malmaison Hotel. It was very interesting and a big honour for us to be able to present our work to the International Mr Leather.

After the lecture we met John at Manchester Legends Bar celebrating MSC Superchain‘s 20th birthday. We asked him if he would consider the possibility of becoming an official supporter of the ReviseF65 project. He answered “yes” immediately and asked Svein to be photographed together with him in front of the Norwegian flag to demonstrate his support (see the upper picture in the right column).

On Monday we wrote John a mail from an internet café in Manchester and thanked him for his support. Tuesday Ian Gurnhill in Spanner Trust (picture left ) told us that John had linked up the ReviseF65 project on his IML Link page. Friday August 29th, we met John and his partner David at the Hoist leatherclub in London. This is John‘s home club where he received the title “Mr Hoist 2003” in February. John told us that he now also had linked the ReviseF65 project to his Support site. This means that ReviseF65 is one of five projects that IML 2003 endorses. This support is of course a big inspiration for us in our work.

In addition to the workshop at Malmaison Hotel, Eric held a “women only” workshop Sunday August 24th at UK’s First International Womens‘ SM Conference in Manchester. On his first trip to the UK, Svein held a successful workshop at the SM Pride festival in London Saturday August 2nd. Another workshop was held at Central Station, Kings Cross, London Thursday August 28th. This lecture was one hour delayed because of the big power-failure (picture right) that stopped all traffic at London‘s Underground system for hours.

The four ReviseF65 workshops attracted from 4 to 40 participants each. At all the workshops central human-rights activists attended. Discussions, dinners and strategy meetings with these SM/leather leaders gave us feedback which will be important for our continued project work.

In addition, our two visits to the UK gave us the opportunity to take a lot of SM/fetish pictures, which we consider an important ingredient of the Revise F65 website.

Categories
Norsk Seksualpolitikk

Årsberetning 2003

Årsberetning for Diagnoseutvalget ReviseF65

2003 overgikk alle de høye forventningene som vi hadde på slutten av 2002. Diagnoseutvalgets arbeid er i 2003 satt på den politiske og faglige dagsorden både nasjonalt og internasjonalt. Det er lagt et solid faglig grunnlag for utvalgets videre arbeid i form av psykolog Odd Reiersøl og Svein Skeids artikkel som ble endelig godkjent for publisering i The Journal of Homosexuality 21. august, samt psykiater Reidar Kjærs foredrag “Do we need all the Paraphilias?” som han holdt på den internasjonale diagnosekongressen i Wien i juni. Den første artikkelen kommer også i bokform på forlaget Haworth.

Utvalget har også satt spesiell pris på at LLH sentralt har engasjert seg sterkt i året som gikk med økonomisk støtte både til planlagte og uforutsette utgifter. Under Skeive dager i juni ble utvalget arbeid indirekte hedret av LLH da Svein Skeid ble tildelt Homo ærespris 2003. LLHs ledelse har også åpnet opp for mangfold i organisasjonen ved eksplisitt å inkludere sadomachochister, fetisjister og transepersoner i forslag til ny plattform for LLH. Som kronen på verket, kunne LLH-leder Tore Holte Follestad 28. november overlevere til Helseministeren det første offisielle og offentlige initiativ fra Diagnoseutvalget til våre politiske myndigheter.

En annen overraskende milepæl i 2003 var støtteerklæringene fra Homofile og lesbiske legers forening (HLLF) og Norsk Forening for Klinisk Sexologi (NFKS) på deres styremøter 29. april og 8. mai 2003.

Mange aktører

Overstående resultater hadde ikke vært mulig uten innsatsen til minst et par dusin ulike personer som har inspirert og utfylt hverandre gjennom de åtte årene som er gått siden 1996. Noen av dem, fordi de har gitt vesentlige bidrag, andre fordi deres bidrag har vært avgjørende for utvalgets eksistens i sin nåværende form. Folk har til dels kommet og gått, men kontakten med og tilbakemeldingene til organisasjonene har sikret nødvendig nyrekruttering.

Det er også viktig å presisere at utvalgets medlemmer i løpet av et år utfører et utall større og mindre administrative og faglige oppgaver, arbeid som ikke alltid syns like godt utad, men som er helt påkrevet for diagnose-arbeidets videre utvikling. Dette kan inkludere uformelle møter, referatskriving og moderators godkjenning av nye deltagere på mailinglista. Sekretær Bent har i høst også skrevet en artikkel om Diagnose-utvalget til julenummeret av SMil-bladet. Listemoderator Ole har skrevet en artikkel om Diagnose-utvalget i det danske Pan-bladet.

Diagnoseutvalget har i 2003 avholdt seks møter; 30/1, 27/3, 22/5, 14/8, 18/9 og 20/11 med gjennomsnittlig seks tilstede hver gang.

Fagstoff

Det er gjort et betydelig arbeid med nettsidene også i 2003, etter etableringen året før. I september ble hele den engelske forside-layouten endret med en klarere faglig del, og en menneskerettighets-del, for å gjøre sidene mer tilgjengelig for fagfolk. Kathrin Passigs unike F65 diagnose-bibliografi, som kom på slutten av fjoråret, ble oppdatert i oktober 2003. Blant annet er nye fagartikler av Charles Moser/Peggy J. Kleinplatz, Dorothy Hayden og Maria Cristina Martins/Paulo Roberto Ceccarelli lagt ut på hovedsiden. Sistnevte ble holdt som foredrag på den 16. verdenskongress i Sexologi i Havanna på Cuba 10.-14. mars 2003, der også Charles Moser bidro med foredrag.

Den viktige Danmark-artikkelen er oversatt til engelsk av Lars S, og “Om utvalget” er oversatt til engelsk av Svein. Den brasilianske legen Beatriz Kotek har oversatt sidene våre til portugisisk.

Case-materiale

Også utvalgets norske nettsider har fått et stort tilfang i 2003. Hele sm/fetisj-nyhets-arkivet til Skeive nyheter gjennom åtte år, ble i våres totalt omarbeidet, oppdatert og lagt ut på utvalgets nettsider. Den norske ICD-10-teksten ble lagt ut i oktober, og ikke minst: i forbindelse med brevet til Helseministeren, ble et unikt case-materiale om diskriminering og vold mot sm/fetisj-populasjonen lagt ut på nettet.

Etter etableringen av telleverk på hovedsiden 15. oktober, har vi hatt 1989 treff fram til 15. desember, hvorav 1721 unike besøk. Det vil si 33 om dagen eller ca 226 i uken. Både SMil og LLH har i 2003 lenket opp utvalget på sine hjemmesider.

Moderator Ole har netto godkjent over 40 nye medlemmer av mailinglista i år, mot 32 i 2002. Ole og Svein har skrevet en ny veiledning til diskusjonslisten der det blant annet presiseres at språket på diskusjonslista er engelsk og at man ved å svare på en [reviseF65]-mail, sender dette til samtlige deltagere på listen for å gi informasjon eller sette i gang en diskusjon. Fordelen med en mailingliste er at man kan svare når man har tid. Deltagerne trenger ikke være online på samme tid. Likevel kan man ha en dialog gående, også med (fag)folk som ikke nødvendigvis deler utvalgets syn i alt og ett.

Bare i løpet av august økte antall medlemmer på diskusjonslista med 50 prosent og det har aldri vært så mange innlegg på lista i løpet av en måned. Dette kan mye tilskrives Reidars foredrag i Wien, samt Sveins workshop under SM-pride i London 2. august. Reidar holdt også foredraget “Er fetisj- og sm fremdeles sykt?” under Homodagene i Sør i Kristiansand 6. juni, på Potpurriet under Skeive Dager i Oslo 24. juni og på Nonna 24.oktober. Reidar hadde også et timeslangt møte med Charles Moser under årsmøtet til the American Psychiatric Association, APA, i San Francisco 16.-22. mai.

Eric og Ann Kristin representerte Diagnoseutvalget ved Nytelsesfestivalen i Grimstad 8.-10.august, samt overfor sexologistudentene ved Høyskolen i Agder 15.-16.november.

Eric og Svein holdt i løpet av august fire workshops i England for over femti personer totalt og en rekke fremtredende deltagere, blant annet International Mr Leather, John Pendal (bildet), som etterpå bestemte seg for å være moralsk verdenssponsor og promotor for Diagnoseutvalget ReviseF65. I mai 2004 vil han offisielt besøke Norge under SLMs Valhall-weekend. Svein tok hundrevis av bilder til Diagnoseutvalgets nettside som illustrerer verdigrunnlaget Sikker, sunn og samtykkende, både med heterovinkling (SM-pride) og homovinkling (Europride).

Spleiselag

Psykiater Lars L kartla i sommer i hvilken grad “våre” diagnoser benyttes her til lands. Det viste seg at diagnosene er svært lite brukt, men ikke helt ute av bruk. Lars sitt søk hos Sintef medførte en uventet regning på over 6.000 kroner, som ble dekket av LLH.

Diagnoseutvalget etablerte i 2003 for første gang et budsjett for å dekke utgifter som nevnt ovenfor. LLH, SLM, SMil og Smia bidro i fjor med over 40.000 kroner til å finansiere utvalgets virksomhet. Regnskap for 2003 og budsjett for 2004 vil foreligge til utvalgets møte 15. januar.

For Diagnoseutvalget

Svein Skeid

Diagnoseutvalgets mandat bygger på LLHs plattform og arbeidsprogram etter vedtak på Landsmøtene i 1996, 1998, 2000 og 2002. Deltagende foreninger er LLH (Petter M), SMil-Norge (Ann-Kr), SLM-Oslo (Øivind A) og Smia (Eric B). Utvalgets kontaktpersoner er sekretær Bent H og webmaster Svein Skeid. Ole Johnsen er moderator på mailingslisten. Fagmedlemmer er psykolog Odd R og psykiater Reidar K. De seks sistnevnte har deltatt siden diagnoseutvalget fikk sitt mandat av LLHs Landsstyremøte 3. oktober 1998. Utvalget supplerer seg selv for til enhver tid å representere de deltagende foreninger, prosjekter og faginstanser.

Categories
English Sexual politics

Annual Report 2003

The ReviseF65 project
ReviseF65 in a new Haworth book

An article by Dr. Odd Reiersøl and Svein Skeid on the Revise 65 project will be published in a forthcoming special, double issue of the US periodical Journal of Homosexuality on SM. The article will be published simultaneously by The Haworth Press INC as a book on SM.

2003 has been a successful year for the ReviseF65 project and the most active until now. The production this year of professional articles and lectures constitutes a solid basis for the long-term work towards the removal of SM and Fetish diagnoses. The article and lectures set focus on the lack of scientific basis for today’s diagnoses and that they lead to discrimination and violence against the SM, Fetish and Transvestite population. With this, an important first part of the committee’s mandate has been fulfilled.

The ReviseF65 committee asked for, and received support on April 29 and May 8 from the Norwegian Association of Gay and Lesbian Physicians (HLLF) and the Norwegian Society for Clinical Sexology (NFKS).

We have had a tight collaboration with our mother organization, LLH, the Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation. On June 28, during the Gay Pride Week, the ReviseF65 webmaster Svein Skeid (picture), was honoured with the Gay Person of the Year Award. It is very encouraging for the further work to revise the Fetish and SM diagnoses, to receive such a prize from LLH.

LLH leader Tore Holte Follestad also delivered a letter from the ReviseF65 group to Mr. Dagfinn Høybråten, Minister of Health (Christian Democratic Party) on November 28. This laid out the professional and human rights arguments which underlie the move to take away the SM and Fetish diagnoses. This is the first official initiative from the ReviseF65 group to Norwegian political authorities.

Professional articles and lectures

Psychologist Odd Reiersøl’s 2002 article “SM: Causes and diagnoses”, can be read atwww.reviseF65.org/reiersol1.html. So far, this article has been translated into German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Russian, in addition to English. On August 21, 2003, Odd Reiersøl and Svein Skeid’s article “The ICD Diagnoses of Fetishism and SM” was finally accepted for print in a forthcoming special, double issue of the US periodical “Journal of Homosexuality” on SM. The article will be published simultaneously by The Haworth Press INC as a book on SM.

On June 20, 2003, psychiatrist Reidar Kjær (picture) made the presentation “Do we need all the Paraphilias?” at the International Psychiatric Conference on Diagnosis in Psychiatry. This was held in Vienna Austria and arranged by the World Psychiatric Association. Dr Kjær also held lectures (in Norwegian) entitled “Is SM and Fetish still a disease?” at the Gay Pride Days in Kristiansand on June 6, at the Gay Pride week in Oslo on June 24, and at the SM house “Nonna” October 24.

On March 10-14 2003, two members of the ReviseF65 mailing list; the Brazilian sexologist and clinical psychologist Maria Cristina Martins and the psychologist, psychoanalyst, Ph.D. in Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis by Paris VII University, Paulo Roberto Ceccarelli, presented a survey about SM and Fetish diagnoses at the XV World Congress of Sexology in Cuba. Their article, “The so-called “deviant” sexualities: Perversion or right to difference?”, can be read at the Revise web site. Dr. Charles Moser also gave a lecture about the paraphilia diagnoses at the same conference. Moser and Peggy J. Kleinplatz’ article “DSM-IV-TR and the Paraphilias: An Argument for Removal”, can also be found linked up from the ReviseF65 main page.

The web pages and the mailing list

The ReviseF65 index page was totally renovated in 2003, with separate professional and human rights sections. In the professional part you can read Dorothy Hayden’s interesting article “Is Sadomasochism a mental pathology?“.

Kathrin Passig’s exclusive special ReviseF65 version of the Datenschlag’s BISAM bibliography, which was established late 2002, was updated in October 2003. The bibliography is divided in two parts, one for the revision of diagnoses, and one for “Recommended general publications”.

Included in the Human rights section is information about the support to the ReviseF65 project from the International Mr Leather, John Pendal (picture). Eric and Svein met him during Europride in Manchester. He attended one of the four workshops we held in England during August. Pendal made public on August 26 that ReviseF65 is one of five projects that he will support during the year he holds the title. This should provide a good opportunity for informing people around the world about the Revise work. Svein also held a workshop during SM Pride in London August 2, and took hundreds of pictures of the SM Pride parade. Picture gallery from Europride in Manchester can be found here.

During 2003, the article about how Denmark removed the diagnosis of Sadomasochism in 1995 wastranslated into English. The Brazilian physician Beatriz Kotek has translated our web pages to Portuguese.

During August, the number of subscribers of the ReviseF65 mailing list increased by 50 percent, due to Reidar’s lecture in Vienna and Svein’s workshop in London. The list moderator, Ole, approved 40 new members to the list in 2003. At the end of the year, we were 87 members on the mailing list. Still we think there is low activity on the list. We hope that new members will present themselves and that people will express their opinions about and experiences of the diagnoses in question.

Svein Skeid, leader

Categories
English Sexual politics

ReviseF65 meets SM Germany

Report from Folsom Europe 2004

In 2004 the federal German organisation BVSM e.V. – Bundesvereinigung Sadomasochismus e.V. – started the work to remove the diagnoses of Sadomasochism, Fetishism and Transvestic Fetishism from their national version of ICD, International Classification of Diseases, published by the World Health Organisation, WHO. This is important because, as with the earlier diagnosis of Homosexuality, the more countries that stop using stigmatizing national SM and Fetish diagnoses, the bigger is the possibility that WHO will follow suit.

The ReviseF65 committee, located in Norway, had important talks with activists from German SM organisations both during Europride in Cologne in 2002, and held a workshop during the Folsom street weekend in Berlin September 3.-6., 2004. This brings hope to intensify the work towards SM/fetish prejudices in general, and the efforts to delete stigmatising SM and Fetish diagnoses from the ICD classification, in special.

ReviseF65 attended Europride in Cologne 2002. Among other things, we had important talks with german SM-activists, and was interviewed by the magazine of SMart-Rhein-Ruhr e.V.. This organisation is running 15 BDSM-communities within 11 towns in Germany. The SMart-Info brought a lot of information about the ReviseF65 efforts to delete stigmatising SM and Fetish diagnoses from the ICD classification published by the WHO – World Health Organisation.

Three weeks before the first Folsom Europe street fair in Berlin 2004, the ReviseF65 committee got a very warm invitation from the BVSM e.V. – Bundesvereinigung Sadomasochismus e.V. to meet them at their Folsom Street Fair booth to present and to inform people about our work. This Federal German organisation had been built up in the two years since I last visited Germany.

At a very short notice, together we were able to organise the production of 500 ReviseF65-flyers in both English and German which was distributed by Ole Johnsen and Svein Skeid from the ReviseF65 committee together with Erik Weisdal during the ten hour long Saturday street fair. As if there wouldn´t have been enough work organising the BVSM booth, Raven and Jayneway managed to organise the possibility for Svein to hold a lecture on Sunday, 5th, the day after the Folsom Europe. Within few days they found a space we could use for free and even organised a wonderfull buffet. Nearly 30 SM activists from organisations all over Germany, Austria and Holland visited the lecture and took part in the discussion afterwards. During the talks at the buffet it suddenly came to happen that what was planned as a nice afterhour for the Folsom weekend transformed into a network meeting of SM activists.

Before, during and after our stay in Berlin September 3.-6., 2004, we learned that central SMart-members I talked to in 2002, was founding member of the new federal SM organisation BVSM e.V., and that one of the main goals of BVSM is to work for the deletion of SM and Fetish diagnoses from the national version of the ICD in Germany. Both SMart-Rhein-Ruhr e.V. and BDSM-Berlin e.V. also support the ReviseF65 project.

This is very important because, as with the earlier diagnosis of Homosexuality, the more countries that stop using their national SM and Fetish diagnoses, the bigger is the possibility that the World Health Organization will follow suit. This far, the diagnoses of Sadomasochism and Transvestism is completely out of use in Denmark since 1995. In the U.S., Sadomasochism, Fetishism and Transvestic Fetishism is considered to be a healthy form of sexual expression as long as it does not impair the daily functioning of the subject.

The Gay Movement more than 30 years ago considered it of fundamental importance to first delete the diagnosis of homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), before any further major human rights improvement was possible. If a group is considered mentally ill, very few people will listen to your arguments aiming at reducing prejudice in society.

The ReviseF65 movement apply the same judgement today. We consider unprofessional and stigmatising SM and Fetish-diagnoses as possibly one of the biggest obstacles to the acceptance of our human rights. Abolishing them is a very important step in the effort to reduce prejudices towards the SM-Leather-Fetish-population.

The pansexual ReviseF65 committee, located in Norway, sets focus on the lack of scientific basis for today’s diagnoses and tries to stimulate the building-up of an international activist and professional network to delete these diagnoses.

One thing I am sure of. The BDSM community is able to reach our goal ourselves. We are not dependent of the Gay movement. But we can learn from their experiences as I referred to in my lecture during the Folsom weekend. Don’t expect anybody to fight for your freedom from discrimination, if you don’t do it yourself.

Like the earlier diagnosis of Homosexuality that is no longer applied by the WHO, the SM and Fetish diagnoses are rarely used in clinical practice as a means to assist people. On the contrary the stigma attached to the diagnoses justifies various forms of harassment and discrimination of this sexual minority by the society. The ReviseF65 group can document that people are losing their jobs, the custody of their children etc., because of their SM-love, lifestyle and self-expression. Much of the discrimination is directly or indirectly a result of the diagnoses.

The ReviseF65 representatives look upon the Folsom Street Fair in general, and the Sunday ReviseF65 lecture in special as a big success. We have got feedback from our German friends that this visit and our contact can lead to closer cooperation and stronger efforts to delete the sm/fetish diagnoses.

All european Leather-SM-Fetish communities were invited to participate. One of the goals with The Folsom Europe Street Fair (like the mother arrangements in the US and Canada) was to strengthen the bonds within the Leather-SM-Fetish community, to raise money to several social projects like hiv and aids, and to reduce SM-Fetish pre-judgements by stepping in to the open public. The arrangement was supported by the City of Berlin, the Berlin Police, the Industrial Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Berlin and the Berlin Tourism Office.

What impressed us Norwegians most, besides all the people at the lecture, the wonderful weather, the very well organised street fair and all the proud and friendly leather/SM people of all colors, interests and sexual orientations, was among other things, the booths with leather- and rubber-men fighting hiv and aids, the Association of Gay and Lesbian Police Officers Berlin-Brandenburg e.V., the police Berlin with it’s contact persons for homosexual lifestyles, and not least all the SM activists at the booths of BVSM e.V., BDSM-Berlin e.V. and SMart-Rhein-Ruhr e.V. .

Svein Skeid

Leader of the ReviseF65 commitee

Categories
Norsk Seksualpolitikk

Årsrapport 2009

Årsrapport for Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65

Det er med stolthet og glede vi presenterer SMias og Diagnoseutvalgets årsrapport for 2009 (og første kvartal 2010) med det høyeste aktivitetsnivået noensinne. Les hvordan det gikk til da Helsedirektoratet fjernet diagnosene på SM og fetisjisme 1. februar 2010. Se mediadekningen i presse, radio og tv landet rundt. Det vi har klart å fange opp. Dette er del av en rapport til Helsedirektoratet, derfor mye fokus på hiv.

Kronologisk fremstilling

1. januar 2009. Etter inspirasjon og mønster av norske Revise F65 fjernet den svenske Socialstyrelsen seks diagnoser på seksuelle preferanser, seksuelle identiteter og kjønnsuttrykk fra den svenske versjonen av diagnoselista ICD. Bortsett fra F64.2 “Kjønnsidentitetsforstyrrelse i barndommen”, er dette de samme diagnosene som Revise F65 anbefaler å fjerne fra den internasjonale sykdomsklassifikasjonen ICD.

”Sadomasochister, fetisjister og transvestitter skal ikke lenger diagnostiseres som syke i Norge”, meldte ABC-nyheter feilaktig 7. januar 2009. Men bortsett fra ingressen, så er brødteksten korrekt: Friskmelding av sm-ere og fetisjister kan dreie seg om mange mennesker her i landet. “I Folkehelsas siste seksualundersøkelse ble det anslått at rundt 10 prosent av befolkningen bruker slike elementer i sitt rollespill. Vår egen nettside har rundt 4000 brukere. Så har homsene sine organisasjoner. I tillegg har vi Scandinavian Leather Man egne foreninger for masse spesielle interessegrupper. Det sier et kvinnelig styremedlem i SMil-Norge til ABC Nyheter. Hun ønsker ikke å stå fram med navn. – Dette er fortsatt relativt tabubelagt, forklarer hun.”

8. januar 2009. Enda verre ble det dagen etter da Klikk.no svært løselig siterte ABC-nyheter og meldte at ”SM-erne er friskmeldte”. Resten av artikkelen er også stort sett velment vås fra ende til annen

I telefonsamtaler med Svein Skeid 9. januar og 16. april 2009 poengterte Seniorrådgiver Arild Johan Myrberg i Helsedirektoratet betydningen av psykolog Odd Reiersøls foredrag i Sidney 2007 i regi av World Association for Sexual health, der Myrberg var tilstede som representant for Helsedirektoratet. Slik jeg oppfattet samtalene, fikk foredraget Myrberg til å se det faglige og menneskerettslige grunnlaget som Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65 bygger på.

Sammen med Diagnoseutvalgets faglige støttespillere og samarbeidspartnere psykolog Elsa Almås og psykolog Paal Rasmussen, avmystifiserte SMias og Diagnoseutvalgets leder Svein Skeid SM over fem sider i Magasinet Dagbladet 10. januar 2009. Etter dette opplevde jeg, som andre SM-ledere før meg har erfart, å bli utstøtt fra deler av familien. Ytringsfriheten har sin pris for seksuelle minoriteter. Link1. Link2. Link3.

”Allerede i 2003 leverte LLHs diagnoseutvalg et brev til helseministeren med anmodning om å fjerne de aktuelle diagnosene. Vi fikk aldri noe svar. Derfor er det gledelig at norske helsemyndigheter nå vil gripe fatt i problematikken. Ikke minst i forhold til hiv-forebyggende arbeid. Det er viktig at gruppene det jobbes mot føler at de er noe verdt, uttalte Svein Skeid i Dagbladets reportasje 10.1.09.”

Blikk nett 19. januar 2009: ”Som leder av Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65 er jeg veldig stolt over å ha hjulpet svenskene til seier. Vi håper den svenske avdiagnostiseringen i neste omgang vil hjelpe Norge til samme resultat. Jeg må innrømme at det føles veldig tilfredsstillende at et over 10 år langt arbeid begynner å bære frukter. Vi har måttet kjempe like mye innad i egne rekker i homobevegelsen som utadrettet arbeid, sier Svein Skeid til Blikk Nett.”

Tv2-nyhetene 19. januar 2009: “LLH vil at sadomasochisme og transvestisme skal avdiagnostiseres. Helsedirektoratet er positive. – Folk kan begynne å puste litt friere og kanskje ikke være fullt så redd for å miste jobb eller omsorg for egne barn. Fjerning av diagnosene vil væreførste skritt i en lang prosess mot menneskeverd og like rettigheter i samfunnet, sier Svein Skeid”.

2. februar 2009 leverte psykolog Odd Reiersøl og Diagnosutvalgets leder Svein Skeid et omfattende notat til Helsedirektoratet med kunnskapsbasert dokumentasjon av det faglige grunnlaget for å fjerne norske fetisj- og sm-diagnoser, inkludert hiv- og helseforebyggende argumenter.

Filmopptak til dokumentaren “Skam og seksualitet” innen homofile miljøer med SMia og Diagnoseutvalgets leder Svein Skeid 18. februar 2009 i SLMs nye lokaler. Prosjektoppgaven til Henrik Lorentzen Gulbrandsen, nestleder i Skeiv Ungdom Oslo og Akershus som er student ved Westerdals School of Communication. Jeg poengterte verdigrunnlaget Sunn, sikker, samtykkende som helseforebyggende motstrategi for å motvirke skam og øke den følelse av selvrespekt som er påkrevet for helseforebyggende arbeid, inkludert kampen mot hiv og soi.

3. februar 2009. Svein Skeid var gjest hos Karita Bekkemellom i tv-programmet Studio Fem der han blant annet forklarte forskjellen på SM og vold, og hvordan sm og fetisjisme for mange er en viktig del av identiteten som verken kan behandles eller velges bort.

14. april 2009. Diagnoseutvalgets ressursgruppe sendte bekymringsmelding til Helse- og omsorgsminister Bjarne Håkon Hanssen over at friskmeldingen er utsatt, samt at vi ba om et møte med Helsedirektoratets avdeling for miljø og helse.

”Revise F65 har såklart betytt mycket som både informationskälla och förebild!!!” “Utan Revise F65 så hade vi kanske aldrig ens blivit uppmärksammade på problemet [med sm- og fetisj-diagnosene].” Foreningssekretær Helene Delilah i RFSU Stockholm i mail til Revise F65, 4. mai 2009.

”Jag vill passa på att tacka för den inspiration Revice-F65 varit för det arbete vi gjort i RFSU i Sverige.” RFSU sekretær Wiktor Södersten i mail til Revise F65, 5. mai 2009.

Revise F65-gruppen hadde møte med Seniorrådgiver Arild Johan Myrberg i Helsedirektoratets lokaler 11. mai 2009. Her fremgikk det blant annet at SMia/Revise F65 er innvilget økonomisk støtte til et engelsk fagnotat med kunnskapsbasert dokumentasjon overfor Verdens Helseorganisasjon. I følge vårt referat, vil Helsedirektoratet, etter en norsk friskmelding, arbeide videre overfor nordisk klassifikasjonssenter med det formål å påvirke WHO sitt kodeverk når det oppdateres til ICD-11.

I mail til Helsedirektoratet 22. juni 2009 skrev psykolog Odd Reiersøl og diagnoseutvalgets leder Svein Skeid at Revise F65 ikke anbefaler å fjerne F64.2 “Kjønnsidentitetsforstyrrelse i barndommen”, slik svenskene har gjort. “Slik vi har forstått, er dette en diagnose som kan brukes til å gi barn rettigheter, for eksempel pubertetsutsettende behandling. Dette ble klart etter diverse informasjon på WPATH konferansen i Oslo 17.-20. juni 2009. Ettersom rettighetene blir ivaretatt av andre diagnoser enn F64.2, er det muligens greit å fjerne den, men det er pr idag reell fare for at hjelpeapparatet ikke har nok oversikt til å kunne forvalte disse barnas rettigheter dersom F64.2 diagnosen blir tatt vekk.” Brevet ble skrevet blant annet etter råd fra psykolog Thore Langfeldt. Anmodningen ble senere tatt til følge av Helsedirektoratet da Norge fjernet sine nasjonale fetisj- og sm-diagnoser 1.2.2010.

I paraden under Skeive dager i Oslo lørdag 27. juni 2009 hadde vi håpet å kunne feire en friskmelding. I stedet bar SMil, SMia og SLM paroler med kravet ”Friskmelding nå!”.

13. september 2009. I en ny tre siders kronologisk fremstilling dokumenteres SMia og Diagnoseutvalgets banebrytende og prisbelønte informasjonsarbeid gjennom 15 år overfor myndigheter og den offentlige opinion med faglig, helsepolitisk og menneskerettslig dokumentasjon. Se også ”15 års kamp overfor norske og internasjonale helsemyndigheter”.

13. september 2009. Ny artikkel på ReviseF65.org om USAs forbedring av sine parafilidiagnoser i 1994. Endringen av daværende DSM-IV var et betydelig fremskritt og ble en inspirasjonskilde for det norske Revise F65-arbeidet gjennom 15 år.

17. september 2009. ”Site map” eller ”full page index” introdusert med fullstendig oversikt over alle artikler som Revise F65 har produsert siden etableringen av nettsidene for syv år siden. Dessuten ble de fleste engelskspråklige artiklene oppdatert, døde linker fjernet og engelsk sammendrag lagt til flere norskspråklige artikler.

ICD Revision White Paper“. Etter invitasjon fra WHO og med økonomisk støtte fra Helsedirektoratet, sendte Revise F65, 24. september 2009 faglig og kunnskapsbasert dokumentasjon til Senior Project Officer Dr. Geoffrey M. Reed i Verdens Helseorganisasjon i forbindelse med den forestående revisjonen fra ICD-10 til ICD-11.

I mail til Revise F65 25. september 2009, skrev Senior Project Officer Dr. Geoffrey M. Reed at vesentlige endringer i ICD er avhengig av bred vitenskapelig og politisk støtte. ”It will be helpful for the recommendations to come from as broad an international coalition as possible, if possible with the formal involvement or endorsement of scientific and professional societies or governments.”

30. september 2009. Revise F65 oppdaterte sin nettside om forskjellen på SM og vold med dokumentasjon fra Luc Granger, Ph.D., leder for Psykologisk fakultet ved Universitetet i Montreal, Canada.

5. oktober 2009: Forespørsel fra redaksjonen i Tidsskrift for psykisk helsearbeid om artikkel fra Revise F65. Diagnoseutvalget svarte positivt og bekreftende at vi kan bidra. Kanskje med en bearbeidet versjon av denne artikkelen:

Fra samfunnsfiende til friskmeldt”. Leder i SMia og Diagnoseutvalget Svein Skeid oppsummerte holdningsendringene som har skjedd fra norske helseautoriteters side i løpet av de femten årene som diagnoseutvalget har drevet informasjonsarbeid. Foredrag ved Universitetet i Agder 13. november 2009.

18. november 2009 hadde psykolog Odd Reiersøl og Diagnoseutvalgets leder Svein Skeid en 40 minutter lang telefonsamtale med WHOs Senior Project Officer Dr. Geoffrey M. Reed. Han stilte flere utdypende spørsmål til det “ICD revision White Paper” som han hadde mottatt fra Revise F65. Han sa seg enig i våre synspunkter. Men det er selvfølgelig en rekke tunge aktører han eventuelt må overbevise i denne saken.

Svein Skeid var gjest i Ragnhild Silkebækkens program ”Pepper og pasjon” på NRK p1 som ble sendt fra Elverum 19. november 2009. Et gjennomgangstema var viktigheten av åpenhet og kjærligheten gjennom 19 år mellom lærhomsene Tore og Svein i Sørskogbygda i Elverum. Programlederen fremhevet dette flere ganger og henviste til reportasjen med Tore og Svein over seks sider i lørdagsVG 24. august 1991. VGs artikkel med flere flotte bilder av kjærestene, kom som et motsvar til Dagbladets beskyldninger samme sommer der SM-homsene i SLM ble gjort til syndebukker for en liten økning i nysmitte av hiv første halvår 1991. HØR LYD:http://www.blekk.org/index.php?p=pepper_og_pasjon

20. november 2009. Brosjyren “SM- og fetisjsex mellom menn” fra mai 2005 ble for første gang linket opp fra Helsedirektoratets nettsider. Dette er etter vår oppfatning et stort fremskritt, et viktig signal til omverdenen og et tiltak som gjør innholdet mer tilgjengelig for folk flest i kampen mot hiv og seksuelt overførbare infeksjoner. Brosjyren er et samarbeid mellom SLM, SMia og Helseutvalget, med økonomisk støtte fra Helsedirektoratet.

30. november 2009. I forbindelse med Verdens Aids Dag, sendte Revise F65 for nok en gang oppfordring til Helse- og omsorgsministeren om å fjerne overflødige, uvitenskapelige, utdaterte og stigmatiserende fetisj- og sm-diagnoser fra den norske ICD-utgaven, undertegnet av ledende fagpersoner og organisasjoner. I brevet påpeker vi at reformen også har en vesentlig hiv-forebyggende effekt. Hiv-viruset diskriminerer ikke! Alt for mange i våre miljøer er hiv-smittet. “Å ta bort stigmatiserende diagnoser er kanskje det enkelttiltak som kan ha størst betydning for sm/fetisj-populasjonens selvfølelse og identitet på kort og lang sikt, med derav følgende mulighet til å ivareta egen helse og beskytte seg mot seksuelt overførbare sykdommer, inklusive hiv.”

Blikk nett 2. desember 2009: ”I anledning Verdens Aidsdag 1. desember har diagnoseutvalget Revise F65 sendt et åpent brev til Helse- og omsorgsminister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen hvor det hevdes at friskmelding av norske transvestitter, fetisjister og sadomasochister er et viktig hivforebyggende tiltak. – Å få diagnosene fjernet vil bety mye for vårt miljø når det gjelder sikrere sex og helseforebygging. Alt for mange i vårt miljø er hivsmittet, noe som rammer mange, også de som ikke er smittet. Helseforebygging er fremhevet i alle strategi- og tiltaksplaner, og da må det gjelde denne gruppen også, sier Svein Skeid.”

Som svar på Diagnoseutvalgets brev, instruerte for første gang Helse- og omsorgsdepartementet 4. desember 2009 Helsedirektoratet konkret om å fjerne de aktuelle fetisj- og sm-diagnosene. Svarfrist: 21. desember 2009.

I svar til Helse- og omsorgsdepartementet 21. desember 2009, gir Helsedirektoratet forhåpninger om at diagnosesaken skal være sluttført innen 1. februar 2010, og at beslutningen om å fjerne de aktuelle diagnosene ”eventuelt umiddelbart kan implementeres i den elektroniske versjonen av ICD-10 i Norge”.

 

 

Leder i papirutgaven av tidsskriftet Cupido ved redaktør Hanne Grasmo januar 2010: ICD-10 revideres til våren og det haster med at Norge fjerner sine nasjonale sm- og fetisj-diagnoser. “Fremdeles ligger forståelsen av dette som “sykt” underliggende i for eksempel barnefordelingssaker og i behandlingen av funksjonshemmede.”

Aftenposten 12. januar 2010: ”Snart kommer friskmeldingen: Allerede i 1997 begynte det norske arbeidet med å fjerne fetisj, sm- og transvestittdiagnoser fra sykdoms- og diagnoseregisteret, ICD-10, som forvaltes av Verdens Helseorganisasjon (WHO). Det var Landsforeningen for lesbiske, homofile, bifile og transpersoner (LLH) som gikk i bresjen. Direktoratet tar sikte på at arbeidet skal være sluttført innen 1. februar, sier Arild Johan Myrberg, seniorrådgiver i Helsedirektoratet til Blikk Nett.”

Vårt Land 13. januar 2010. “Disse diagnosene har vært svært lite brukt over svært lang tid, og jeg kjenner ikke til noen behandlingsformer som er knyttet til dette, sier Arild Johan Myrberg, seniorrådgiver i Helsedirektoratet.” “Det har gjennom flere år vært pressgrupper som mener at dette ikke er relevante diagnoser. Men at det er naturlige variasjoner av menneskers liv og at det føles stigmatiserende å ha en diagnose henger over seg, fortsetter Myrberg.”

21. januar 2010. I VG ble Høyres justispolitiske talsmann André Oktay Dahl kritisert for å bidra til at ”SM” og ”sadomasochisme” etableres som skjellsord i det norske samfunnet.

21. januar 2010: ”Oktay Dahl stigmatiserer SM-ere”. Leserinnlegg i Dagbladets papirutgave av Svein Skeid og Andrès Lekanger.

André Oktay Dahl beklaget sine uttalelser på Gaysir 29. januar 2010: “Det er god grunn til å stille spørsmålet om hvor solidariske LHBT-mennesker ville være mot hverandre hvis det en dag begynte å røyne litt på, også her i Norge. Jeg tviler på at den sitter sterkt – og jeg kom for eksempel nylig selv i skade for indirekte å rakke ned på enkelte i S/M-miljøet.”

Fra samfunnsfiende til friskmeldt”. Oppdatert versjon av foredraget fra 13.11.09 ble trykket i februarutgaven av månedsavisa Blikk side 22: ”I følge myndighetenes hiv-forebyggende planer, så kan en gruppes levekår påvirke evnen til å beskytte seg mot seksuelt overførbare infeksjoner. Diagnoseutvalget har lenge argumentert for at fjerning av stigmatiserende diagnoser kanskje er det viktigste og rimeligste hiv-forebyggende enkelttiltak overfor vår gruppe.”

29. januar 2010. Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad og Svein Skeid ble intervjuet på Radio Norge-nyhetene om den forestående friskmeldingen i tillegg til en lengre reportasje kl 18.40 med reporter Torkil Torsvik. ”Homofili ble fjernet fra diagnoselista på 70-tallet. Sexolog og transvestitt Esben Esther Benestad mener det er på høy tid at også transvestitter, sadomasochister og fetisjister friskmeldes.”

Bildereportasje med Diagnoseutvalget på Gaysir nett 30. januar 2010: – [Sadomasochisme/SM] dreier seg om den menneskelige seksualitetens kreativitet og friheten til å utfolde denne, mener Hanne Grasmo og får støtte av psykolog Odd Reiersøl: – Fetisjer må ansees som ressurser for din egen og andres tenning. Når man nå fjerner diagnosestempelet, betyr det at det blir lettere for folk å bruke disse ressursene til egen og felles glede. – Det er nemlig ikke uvanlig at folk stigmatiserer seg selv fordi de vet at det de tenner på er definert inn under en diagnose, mener han.

Mandag 1. februar 2010. Helsedirektoratet offentliggjorde på sine nettsider at norske helsemyndigheter fjerner fem diagnoser på seksuelle preferanser, seksuelle identiteter og kjønnsuttrykk fra den norske versjonen av diagnoselista ICD. Dette er de samme kodene som SMia og Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65 har anbefalt fjernet. Spesielt hyggelig er det at direktoratet blant annet benytter begrepet “seksuelle identiteter” for å beskrive fetisj- og sm-diagnosene. Myndighetene følger derved opp det mangeårige identitetsskapende og helseforebyggende arbeidet som SMia og Diagnoseutvalget driver for å bremse hiv-epidemien i vår målgruppe.

Helsedirektoratets friskmelding ble dekket i en rekke medier landet rundt tirsdag 2. februar 2010.

“Vedtaket [fra Helsedirektoratet] er etter vår vurdering en naturlig oppfølging av myndighetenes mangeårige folkehelsearbeid for å bedre levekårene for seksuelle minoriteter. Helsedirektoratet tar konsekvensen av sine egne strategi- og handlingsplaner om identitetsbyggende arbeid og økt selvrespekt som et viktig helseforebyggende virkemiddel, sier Svein Skeid til Blikk Nett 2.2.2010.”

Lege Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad diskuterte saken med psykiater Hans Olav Tungesvik på p4-programmet ”Sytten Tretti” ved siden av at p4 brakte saken i sine nyhetsoppslag. Benestad og Tungesvik var enige om at behandlingstrengende mennesker fortsatt skal få hjelp, men begrunnelsene deres var jo litt ulike. ”Ulykkelige mennesker skal fortsatt få hjelp”, poengterte Benestad; ”fordi omgivelsene fordømmer. Skammen og tabuene skaper 95% av de problemene vi ser.” ”Man blir syk av å bli fortalt at man er syk”, avsluttet han.

På p4-nyhetene samme dag uttalte Helsedirektør Bjørn-Inge Larsen:

”Det er sikkert mange som mener at [fetisj/sm] er uvanlig, og det er det sikkert. Men det er altså ikke noen sykdom og det skal ikke behandles i helsetjenesten! Larsen forteller at verken samfunnet eller helsetjenesten ser på dette som en sykdom og at det derfor ikke hører hjemme i diagnosenes verden. – Vi pleier jo å si at samfunnet setter grenser hvis man gjør ting mot andre som andre ikke ønsker. Dette handler jo om frivillig deltagelse i seksuelle aktiviteter. Og vi kan ikke se bort fra at også andre tilstander kan komme til å bli endret i framtiden”, avsluttet Helsedirektøren.

Intervju med Svein Skeid ble sendt tre ganger på formiddagsnyhetene til Radio Norge 2. februar, samt et lengre innslag i 1715-sendingen på NRK Østlandssendingen med Kalle Tuskerud.

”Det har vært en skamplett på det norske lovverket at 100 år gamle diagnoser, basert på fordommer, har fått lov å bli stående”, skrev LLH sentralt på sine hjemmesider, i følge NRK.

Ellers ble saken omtalt blant annet i tv2-nyhetene, NRK, VG, Dagbladet, Dagens Medisin, Forskning.no, Dagsavisen, Stavanger Aftenblad, Sandefjord blad, Fædrelandsvennen,Adresseavisa, ABC Nyheter, Troms Folkeblad, Tønsbergs Blad, Hallingdølen, kk.no og Helse Medisin Teknikk.no. Da er papirutgavene av aviser landet rundt ikke regnet med.

4. februar 2010. Psykolog Odd Reiersøl oversatte nyhetssaken med den norske friskmeldingen til engelsk og vi sendte den deretter blant annet til Senior Project Officer Dr. Geoffrey M. Reed i Verdens Helseorganisasjon til orientering.

Den amerikanske interesseorganisasjonen National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) viderebrakte nyheten 4. Februar 2010: The Norwegian Directorate of Health takes sexual minorities off the sick list.

Anne Emilie Korilstad, nestleder FTPN, 8. februar 2010: “Foreningen for Transpersoner i Norge (FTPN) støtter selvfølgelig denne endringen og ser det som en modernisering av samfunnet. FTPN er en forening for alle typer transpersoner eller kjønnoverskridere og vi er selvfølgelig glade for å ha blitt “friske”. Man skal i denne sammenhengen allikevel ikke se bort fra de psykiske utfordringene som møter de som har denne legningen. Det er meget viktig å gå ut med informasjon til barn og unge om denne legningen slik at de ikke fordømmer seg selv eller andre.”

KITH 24. februar 2010: Etter vedtak av Helsedirektøren 1.2.2010, fjernet kompetansesenteret KITH de fem transvestisme, fetisjisme og sm-diagnosene fra den elektroniske versjonen av sykdomslista ICD-10 i Norge.

Dobbeltsidig reportasje i tidsskriftet Cupido mars 2010. “Den 1. februar 2010 ble en jublende merkedag for alle fetisjister, transvestitter og SM-ere i Norge. Denne dagen fjernet helsemyndighetene disse seksuelle identitetene som sykdomsdiagnoser.” “Lederen i Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65 Svein Skeid har kjempet for denne endringen i mange år og strålte i alle medier.”

19. mars 2010. Fem siders bildereportasje i papirutgaven av Blikk mars 2010 s. 56-61. Friskmeldingen av fetisjister og sm-ere åpner for nye typer menneskerettighetsarbeid: Friskmeldingen vil etter hvert gjøre det lettere å være åpen for dem som ønsker det. ”Når du er ung og finner ut at du tenner på sm eller fetisj, så skal du slippe å lese i en lærebok at dette er en sykelig tilstand. Det er mange som har opplevd det, som blir veldig fortvilet og tror at det er noe galt med dem. De skal slippe å ha dette første møtet med sin egen seksualitet.” Samme reportasje i nettutgaven av Blikk 19.3.10.

Drammens Tidende 20. mars 2010. Friskmeldte lyster: ”Men Tone og Arild er helt friske. Det har myndighetene slått fast. 1. februar i år friskmeldte nemlig Helsedirektoratet folk som dem. Da ble det besluttet å fjerne sadomasochisme som psykiatrisk diagnose fra den norske diagnoselisten. I BDSM- miljøet og i fagmiljøer har det lenge foregått en intern lobbyvirksomhet for å få dette gjennom. For Arild er dette strålende nyheter. – Det har ikke så mye å si for meg personlig. Men for den som verken er i miljøet eller har et nettverk rundt seg, så er det et særlig viktig signal om at man ikke trenger å gå rundt og føle seg unormal eller gal.”


På årsmøtet i SMia Oslo 13. juni 2009 ble Svein Skeid gjenvalgt som leder. Peder N ble gjenvalgt som kasserer. Styremedlem Finn CH. Revisor: Vidar N. Foreningen er nå registert med organisasjonsnummer i Brønnøysundregisteret. SMia har også fått tid til å arrangere noen lekestuer i året som gikk: 6. mars, 21. mai og 2. oktober. SMia har søkt og fått innvilget skjenkebevilling til disse arrangementene som skjer i samarbeid med SLM. Diagnoseutvalget har avholdt møter 17.1.09, 21.2.09, 4.4.09, 25.4.09, 27.10.09, 19.12.09 og 6.2.2010.

 

 

 

Categories
Norsk Seksualpolitikk

Penger, porno og Kvinnefront

En seksuell minoritet ble trakassert i antipornokampens navn.

“Når vi studerer ordlyden i loven mot diskriminering på grunnlag av seksuell legning, finner vi at denne seksuelle minoriteten er falt utenfor ordlyden. Jeg vil ikke hevde at [den ekstremradikale kvinnebevegelsen] bevisst går løs på akkurat den gruppen man antar ikke har noen lovbeskyttelse mot trakassering på seksuelt grunnlag, men jeg må ærlig si at det kan se slik ut.”

Kronikk i Dagbladet 29.9.2003

Det er umulig å godta heftet «Porno, kvinneforakt og løgn» som et seriøst forskningsarbeide, skriver forfatteren Willy Ustad i Dagbladet 29.9.2003.


I DAGBLADET
16.9.03 beklager Ragna Birkemo og Bjørg Bjørsvik at Kvinnefronten måtte betale tilbake kr 66 307, etter at John Alvheim stilte spørsmål ved Kvinnefrontens hefte «Porno, kvinneforakt og løgn». Jeg mener helseministeren gjorde rett i å kreve pengene tilbake.

For det første var pengene bevilget som «tilskudd til abortforebyggende tiltak – studiesirkel og selvforsvarskurs». Hvor et anti- pornohefte kommer inn i denne sammenhengen, kreves det nok litt spesielle briller for å se.

For det andre er det umulig å godta heftet «Porno, kvinneforakt og løgn» som et seriøst forskningsarbeide. Fordi jeg selv jobbet med research om pornobransjen i anledning av et bokprosjekt, studerte jeg heftet, og fant grunn til å se nærmere på de omtalte bladene. Min konklusjon er at man har plukket løse deler, for å bevise det man mente før «forskningen».

«FORSKNINGSARBEIDET» har bestått i å kjøpe en bunke pornoblader i en Narvesenkiosk. I en undersøkelse av norsk kioskporno ville jeg forventet en oppstilling av den prosentvise fordelingen mellom typer innhold så som bildestoff, kontaktannonser, telesexannonser, noveller, leserbrev etc. Jeg ville også ventet en redegjørelse for eierforhold, opplag og så videre, samt en vurdering av innholdet i henhold til norsk lov, ved en jurist. Spesielt ville jeg ventet at man hadde undersøkt flere nummer av hvert blad, for å påvise en helhet. Uten fakta kan man jo vanskelig trekke konklusjoner? At jeg også forventet edruelighet og sannferdighet i det som foregir å være en forskningsrapport, er en selvfølge.

Den såkalte rapporten oppfyller ikke noen av disse enkle kravene til selv den mest elementære forskermetode. Derimot fremmes det uriktige påstander om innholdet i de to bladene som utpekes særskilt; LEK og nå henfarne DUO.

I en artikkel om sprukne kondomer i Sør-Afrika skriver LEKs redaktør uttrykkelig at dette er alvorlig i et land der 9 prosent av befolkningen er HIVsmittet. Kvinnefronten fortier denne klargjøringen, siterer bare det som passer egne hensikter av artikkelen, og skriver at «de dårlige kondomene burde heller fått tankene over på Sør-Afrikas store og økende antall aids-smittede». Dette er fusk, og sverting av redaktøren i LEK.

I samme nummer av LEK hevder heftet at det finnes en artikkel på mange sider om «hvordan man kjøper kvinner» på et sted i Syden. I realiteten var dette en foto-reportasje der teksten neppe utgjorde mer enn en side tilsammen, og avsnittet om de prostituerte var kanskje en sjettedels side. Dette er en tvilsom tallmagi.

OM BLADET DUO skrives det i heftet at «novellene handler om uskikkelige skolebarn som får ris og innføring i samleie av overordnede på skolen». Dette er en klar påstand om at DUO var et blad for pedofile. Angivelig skulle det undersøkte nummeret være DUO Special nr 1-1999. Annet stoff fra DUO som nevnes i heftet finnes imidlertid i nr 4-2000, som ikke er listet opp som «undersøkt». Fordi påstanden var så sterk, sjekket jeg fire hele årganger av DUO uten å finne en eneste slik novelle. En novelleserie av psevdonymet Bad Girl handler om hvordan hun selv brukes som modell i seksualundervisning, men elevene er uttrykkelig seksten (dvs over den seksuelle lavalder), ingen samleier eller «innføring» i sådant forekommer, og den eneste som får rapp i enden er jeg-personen selv – som beskriver seg som noenogtretti. Dette er klart innenfor lovene ramme. Langt tilbake i årgangene fant jeg et leserbrev der en mann fortalte at han fikk ris av en kvinnelig kateket under konfirmasjonsforberedelsen – trolig en gang på femtitallet. Men noen «innføring i samleie» fikk han såvisst ikke. Her prøver man urettmessig å henge ut DUO som et blad for pedofile. Heftet gir seg ut på en privat tolkning av straffelovens uttrykk angående porno om «barn eller noen som framstilles som barn». Her later Kvinnefronten til å mene at en engelsk skoleuniform godtgjør at en pornoaktør er framstilt som barn.

Så enkel er ikke verden: I de fleste land må en pornoaktør minst være atten år. Men hun eller han kan framstille en rollefigur som er – juridisk talt – én dag over den seksuelle lavalder i det landet filmen vises. Hun/han kan altså lovlig framstille en sekstenåring, på en norsk TVskjerm.

Med Kvinnefrontens måte å vurdere dette på, ville faktisk et bilde av en femtiårig infantilist i bleie også være en person som er «framstilt som barn».

I HEFTET brukes det mye energi på å få trafficking, prostitusjon, barneporno, vold mot kvinner og pomografi til å bli en enhet – et slags over-onde. Dette er en tvilsom sak: Trafficking forsyner prostitusjonsmarkedet, og i noen grad et illegalt, slaverilignende arbeidsmarked uten papirer eller rettigheter.

Barneporno er en forbrytersk virksomhet som opererer via private nettverk, og den vanlige pornobransjen i USA har faktisk både utlovt og utbetalt dusører for tips som fører til pågripelse av distributører av barneporno.

På syttitallet hendte det at prostituerte spilte inn pornofilmer, men dette tok en brå slutt da AIDS ble en faktor. I dag kreves det ferske hivtester, og den som har et utsvevende sexliv utenfor jobben risikerer at ingen vil jobbe med dem.

Og ennå har ingen seriøs forskning sagt at porno avler voldtekter. Lederen av Dixie – landsforeningen for voldtatte – opplyste tvert i mot til sosiolog Kjetil Rolness at gjennom de 12-15 år hun har arbeidet med å hjelpe voldtatte, har ikke en eneste av dem nevnt pornobruk som noen faktor i sammenheng med voldtekten.

Sveriges Brottsförebyggande Råd (BRÅ) advarte i år 2000 mot «en volds- og pornodebatt der likt log ulikt sauses sammen til en eneste stor grøt». Jeg vil til min dødsdag hevde Kvinnefrontens rett til å mene at virkeligheten er en slik grøt, men jeg kan ikke se at slike konklusjoner kan komme ut av – eller ha den minste sammenheng med – en ytterst lettvint gjennomgang av en tynn bunke norske pomoblader.

DET KLEBER en del ubehagelige ting ved heftet «Porno, kvinneforakt og løgn»: De to heftene LEK og DUO får gjennomgå mest, men er det tilfeldig?

LEK er det norske pornobladet som antas å ha den største andelen av kvinnelige lesere, og er dermed en ubehagelig påminnelse for Kvinnefronten om at et stadig økende antall kvinner faktisk leser porno.

DUO var sadomasochistenes blad, og den ekstremradikale kvinnebevegelsen har brukt nettopp sadomasochistenes filmer og seksuelle praksis som skremmebilder i antiporno-korstogene siden slutten av syttitallet. For å beholde dette skremmebildet intakt, ble faktisk tre kvinnelige medlemmer av S/M-foreningen SMil i Danmark kastet ut fra et antipornoseminar i Danmark i 1984, da de gikk i rette med den framstillingen som ble gitt. Og nettopp DUO var bladet med artikler der blant annet denne saken ble dratt fram. Bladet hevdet – ikke uten rett – at en seksuell minoritet ble trakassert i antipornokampens navn. Når vi studerer ordlyden i loven mot diskriminering på grunnlag av seksuell legning, finner vi at denne seksuelle minoriteten er falt utenfor ordlyden. Jeg vil ikke hevde at man bevisst går løs på akkurat den gruppen man antar ikke har noen lovbeskyttelse mot trakassering på seksuelt grunnlag, men jeg må ærlig si at det kan se slik ut.

USANNHETENE og de langsøkte konklusjonene i heftet gjør at det ikke kan kalles forskning. Det er en pamflett, beregnet på å samle tilhengere blant dem som ikke hadde sett disse bladene, eller ikke orket å kontrollere.

Det er bra at Staten støtter forskning. Men da har også Staten krav på at det virkelig gjøres forskning som fortjener betegnelsen. Heftet «Porno, kvinneforakt og løgn», var bare et ikke altfor saklig eller velfundert debattinnlegg. Og slike er det god folkeskikk å betale selv.

Categories
Norsk Seksualpolitikk

Sm-kvinner trakasseres av kvinner

Trashing: Sm-kvinner trakasseres av kvinner

Som ved andre typer overgrep, kan det se ut som om kvinner er spesielt utsatt. I følge Jad Keres-rapporten fra 1994, har 56 prosent av lesbiske/biseksuelle kvinner opplevd diskriminering og vold fra andre kvinner i det lesbiske miljøet på grunn av sin sm-tilhørighet.

https://ncsfreedom.org/component/k2/item/453-violence-against-s/m-women-within-the-lesbian-community-a-nation-wide-survey.html

One quarter of the sm women surveyed were physically assaulted by members of the lesbian community.

Discrimination within the lesbian community affects 30% of the women surveyed because of their sm orientation, including being ejected or refused admittance from a public accommodation, denied housing, and/or refused membership in a social, recreational, political, educational or spiritual lesbian group.

Den lesbiske forfatteren Pat Califia (Patrick Califa-Rice) beskriver i et intervju i den svenske avisa Homoplaneten forfølgelsen (trashing) av amerikanske sm-aktivister:

“Sm-lesber bankes opp og utestenges fra kvinners sosiale treffpunkter. Vår litteratur brennes, de ringer våre arbeidsgivere og sier vi er perverse slik at vi mister våre jobber.”
Kilde: “Samtal med Pat Califia”. Del 1: Feminismen. RFSL: Homoplaneten 12.10.1998.http://www.rfsl.se/?p=3815&aid=4757

Ting tyder på at trashing der radikalfeminister forfølger kvinner, forekommer også i Norge. Og SM-lesber nektes også i her i landet adgang til kvinners sosiale treffpunkter.

EKSEMPEL 1
“Paroler som uttrykker støtte til sm strider imot parolegrunnlaget og 8. mars-dagens intensjon og er derfor uakseptable i toget”.
Vedtak i 8. mars-komiteen i Oslo 20.2.1997. Kilde: Brev og telefon fra 8. mars-komiteen 1997.

EKSEMPEL 2
En 32 år gammel lesbisk kvinne ble i 1997 outet og hengt ut som sm-er på sin arbeidsplass av en kjent norsk radikalfeminist. 32-åringen hadde deltatt i en avis-debatt om sm og arrangerte et møte med temaet. Feministen deltok på en undervisningssamling på offerets arbeidsplass. 32-åringen var ikke tilstede på samlingen, men figurerte som terapeut på en video som ble brukt i undervisningen. Feministen kjente igjen den lesbiske kvinnen på videoen, og uttalte overfor offerets kolleger, fagsjef og representanter for andre institusjoner at “det er sjokkerende at kvinnen jobbet som terapeut når hun er sm-er”. Da den lesbiske kvinnen kom på jobb over helgen fortalte sjokkerte kolleger hva som hadde blitt sagt. Offeret følte at hun måtte stille opp på et møte med alle ansatte og gjøre rede for seg for at det skulle være mulig fortsatt å jobbe der. Etter dette roet situasjonen seg, og kvinnen arbeider ikke lenger der nå. Kilde: Personlig dokumentasjon.

EKSEMPEL 3
Det kan virke som om enkelte radikalfeminister systematisk lærer kvinner opp til frykt overfor sm-kvinner og sm-lesber. Den samme 32 åringen opplevde i 1995 at en kollega ved en institusjon for oppsøkende ungdsomsarbeid nektet å arbeide sammen med sm-kvinnen “fordi hun ikke kunne føle seg trygg på kvinnens holdninger til vold”. Kvinnen ble innkalt til sjefen i sakens anledning, men han hadde ingen problemer med sm-lesbens seksuelle orientering. Heller ikke tredjemann i teamet; en muslimsk amerikaner, hadde problemer med dette. Kvinnen var på den tiden leder i en sm-rettighetsgruppe. Kilde: Personlig dokumentasjon.

Categories
English

Europride Manchester 15-25 August 2003 SM/fetish/leather photo gallery

Some of the pictures can be watched in a bigger version by clicking on them

Photogallery 3 “Ladies and gents”
SM dykes in the Europride parade

SM Dykes and Club Lash for Lasses



Club Lash for Lasses



Company Bar

BELOW: Master and slaves from the leatherbar Company Bar in Manchester‘s Gay Village.

RIGHT: Walking to the gay village after the parade Saturday August 23rd 2003



Rob Manchester

RIGHT: What are they arguing about?

Both pictures from Rob‘s leather collection.


Categories
English Seksualpolitikk Sexual politics

Sexual Freedom NOW (published 1996/98)

Testimony from Physicians and Psychiatrists
for the NOW S/M Policy Reform Statement

Physicians and psychiatrists about SM as a valid expression of adult consensual sexuality and an important part of people’s sexual orientation.


Psychiatrist Susan D. Wagenheim, M.D.

As a board-certified psychiatrist and supporter of the National Organization for Women, I write in support of amending the policy statement on consensual S/M. It is my understanding that S/M practice is a valid expression of adult consensual sexuality. In my private practice, I hear patients tell me frequently that they were “born this way”; ie submissive or dominant in sexual nature. Their experience is that S/M is their sexual ORIENTATION, and they “come out” to themselves much as homosexual and lesbian people do. With that understanding, there is no place in NOW for discrimination against a woman’s right to choose; her right to choose how, when and with whom to express her sexual self.
Charles Moser, Ph.D., M.D.

S/M practitioners have been victimized by society as a whole and by many groups that should know better. There is no credible evidence that S/M practitioners have any more problems or issues than other sexual orientations. There is no data to suggest that S/M leads to violence. All research so far, indicates that S/M practitioners are indistinguishable from individuals with other sexual orientations, except by their sexual behavior. The revision of the NOW policy is long overdue.
June M. Reinisch, Ph.D., with Ruth Beasley, MLS. The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex

St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1990.

“Researchers estimate that 5 percent to 10 percent of the U.S. population engages in sadomasochism for sexual pleasure on at least an occasional basis, with most incidents being either mild or staged activities involving no real pain or violence. It appears that many more individuals prefer to play the masochist’s role than the sadist’s. It also appears that males are more likely to prefer sadomasochistic activities than females. This means that male sadists may have difficulty in finding willing masochistic females to be sexual partners.

“If partners are located, an agreement is reached about what will occur. The giving and receiving of actual or pretended physical pain or psychological humiliation occurs in most cares only within a carefully prearranged script. Any change from the expected scenario generally reduces sexual pleasure.

“Most often it is the receiver (the masochist), not the giver (the sadist), who sets and controls the exact type and extent of the couple’s activities. It might also interest you to know that in many such heterosexual relationships, the so-called traditional sex roles are reversed — with men playing the submissive or masochistic role. Sadomasochistic activities can also occur between homosexual couples.”
Havelock Ellis Studies of the Psychology of Sex (early 20th cent)

“The essence of sadomasochism is not so much “pain” as the overwhelming of one’s senses – emotionally more than physically. Active sexual masochism has little to do with pain and everything to do with the search for emotional pleasure.” Ellis believed that culture tries to stifle our “natural impulses, which become expressed through various emotional/physical representations of the heirarchal structure of society.”
Iwan Bloch 
Strange Sexual Practices (1933)

“Sexual abnormalities” were common in ordinary people, and that aberrations and deviations were as essential to life as the “sex impulse” itself. Masochism exists among socially powerful men for whom it was a “liberation from conventional pressure and the professional mask.”
Theodore Reik’s 
Masochism in Modern Man (1941)

“Pleasure is the aim, never to be abolished and the masochistic staging is but a circuitous way to reach that aim. The urge for pleasure is so powerful that anxiety and the idea of punishment themselves are drawn into its sphere.”
Bill Thompson 
Sadomasochism (1994)

“As SM devotees carefully refine these simple acts, by dressing them up in role-play, it is easy to see how they are deliberately manipulating various forms of stimulation in the service of sexual arousal; and how this consenting scene where the submissive’s pleasure is carefully planned is obviously very different from a truly coercive act like rape, which involves aggressive action designed to inflict acute pain on a non-aroused victim.”
Dolf Zillmann (1984) [D. Zillmann along with Park Elliot Dietz are two of the world’s leading authorities on the relationship between sex and aggression.]

“As the arousing capacity of novel partners is likely to fade and acute emotional reactions such as fear and guilt are improbable accompaniments of sexual activity, what can be done to combat the drabness of routine sexual engagements that is expected to result from excitatory habituation? Rough housing, pinching, biting and beating emerge as viable answers. In terms of a theory it is the controlled engagement of pain that holds promise of reliably producing excitatory reaction for transfer into sexual behavior and experience…. Pain then always can be counted on to stir up excitement, however, pain must be secondary to sexual excitedness. It must be dominated by sexual stimulation. Only when thus dominated can it be expected to enhance sexual excitedness.”
Park Elliot Dietz (1990) [P.E. Dietz is a forensic psychologist who consistently tries to point out the absurdity of the link between s/m devotees and psychotic criminals.]

According to Dietz, the five main differences between psychotic sadistic serial murderers and SM devotees:

1. Psychotics search for unwilling partners. S/M devotees use a “safeword” that the submissive can say at any time to end the scene, thus the submissive retains real control throughout the encounter.

2. Psychotics force their acts on the victim rather than aiming at pleasing the submissive (as in s/m). The psychotic sadistic acts are quite different from s/m practices, and usually include: forced anal penetration, forced fellatio, or violent vagina-penetration with various foreign objects -rather than the penis.

3. The sadistic offenders’ demeanor is diametrically opposed to s/m devotees: usually the psychotic is detached and unemotional throughout the torture, while the s/m dominant appears to achieve a “high” or pleasure equivalent during the scene.

4. Psychotic criminals torture their victims, inflicting serious and permanent injury, trying to arouse terror in their victims. S/M devotees skillfully enhance the sexual arousal of their partner, following the rules and guidelines that were established before the scene, thus creating only the illusion that the submissive is not in control.

5. Psychotics usually have a past history of sexual crimes such as rape or incest. S/M devotees are average people who typically don’t have criminal pasts.
The sociologists took their lead from the anthropologist Paul Gebhard, whose 1968 essay “Fetishism and Sadomasochism” undermined the idea of individual pathology by pointing to sadomasochism’s cultural roots, and the futility of defining a widespread and diffuse sexual practice by reference to a few “extreme” examples. He stated that S/M practices were “only prevalent in its organized form in literate societies full of symbolic meanings.” This means that far from being a manifestation of a base instinct, sadomasochism required a considerable amount of intelligence and organization.
1929 Hamilton survey on marriage habits: 28% males and 29% females admitted that they derived “pleasant thrills” from having some form of “pain” inflicted on them.
William A. Henkin, PhD.; November 1992 letter to the committee that advocated changes to the entries on sexual sadism and masochism in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

“In conclusion: consensual sadomasochism offers its adherants an opportunity to explore paraphilic urges and fantasies, not in a dangerous or debilitating fashion, but in a safe and supportive manner, where those urges and fantasies can be pleasurably satisfied, and where their values in a person’s psychic life can be revealed.

“Within the past decade prominent clinicians and scholars in the fields of psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, and clinical sexology, eschewing the received wisdom of past masters who south to fit clinical observations to their theories, rather than the other way around, have instead made serious attempts to understand the activities of consensual sadomasochism as well as the dynamic processes that underlie them, and to devise theories that fit the evidence they found in the lab, in the consulting room, and in the field. They have proposed that consensual erotic power play is not a psychiatric disorder: that instead, it can simply be a form of sexual pleasure, and that as a path of psychological and spiritual development it can even be the evidence and experience of triumph over childhood adversity.

“Absent distress, harm, or functional impairment, to define such activity as a mental disorder is to place chains on the human spirit, and to produce a chilling effect on the very processes we as psychotherapists are trained and charged to abet: the healing and liberation of damaged and imprisoned personalities, and their integration in the full creative expression of human beings.”
Dr. William A. Henkin, 1989 presentation to the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex (now Sexuality) with Sybil Holiday, published in 1991 as “Erotic Power Play,” Sandmutopia Guardian.

A Clinical Introduction:

“Everyone accomplishes some degree of self-identification in the normal course of growing up. But the process of growing up is one of acculturation as well as one of maturation, so that as we are in the midst of discovering all those special attributes that make us who we are, we are simultaneously being trained to subdue, suppress, or otherwise disown important facets of ourselves. In the ensuing confusion, few people grow up whole. Instead we are to one degree or another dis-integrated, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as being separated into component parts or particles; reduced to fragments; having had our cohesion or integrity broken up. Disintegration is the condition that as adults we either accept or try to alter.

“One of the most direct ways I know for a person to gain access to hidden facets of his self, and hence to move toward integration, is to explore his sexual personas ; and one of the most direct ways I know for a person to explore his sexual personas is to examine the attitudes he brings to sexual activity. But to examine sexual attitudes usually requires more than intellectual assessment: it first needs exposure, practice, and hands-on experience. It also requires a perspective concerning the variety of people’s experiences that is not influenced by cultural norms.”

On negotiation:

“Negotiation includes both initial and ongoing, verbal and non-verbal communications. In erotic power play, negotiation is the underpinning for consensuality: you cannot agree, or consent, to give something if you do not know it has been requested, or to accept something if you do not know it has been offered. In addition, the more completely and openly people negotiate about what they want or have to offer, the more they establish their parity, as it is difficult for unequals to negotiate truly: all parties know that ultimately the person with more inherent power can pull rank.”

On Ritual:

“A major function of ritual is to let us know who we are beyond the confines of our small, individual selves. Baptisms, confirmations, bar and bas mitzvahs, long pants, graduations, marriages – all ceremonies tell us, even as they announce it, who we are to ourselves, our families, our friends, our communities, and our world.

“Anthropologists, ethnologists, mythologists, and other psychologists of culture note that where a heritage of meaningful rites of passage does not exist, people will feel enough of a spiritual imbalance to make up rituals of their own. It’s become a cliché that our society offers us a paucity of rituals that touch the spirit, and that those that exist are for the most part competitive or not negotiated: football games, invasions of small islands, and the episodic opportunity to vote for more of the same.

“In erotic power play, rituals of substance can be conceived, developed, and executed in ways that can touch their participants on numerous levels at once: they can be physical, emotional, cognitive, or spiritual; sexual, political, and religious; they are simultaneously as sophisticated and creative as the human imagination can make them, and as basic and primitive as the psyche’s drives for power and sexual fulfillment.”

Categories
English Seksualpolitikk Sexual politics

Discrimination and violence towards the SM/fetish population (Revise F65, 2004; NCSF, 1999)

(Some more discrimination cases are included under “Discrimination and stigmatization” on the full index page: Site map!)
Discrimination and violence towards the SM/fetish population (Revise F65, 2004; NCSF, 1999)

 

A lot indicates that the instances of violence, harassment and discrimination in connection with work, home and custody of children that we are aware of are just the tip of the iceberg. As the situation stands today, it is often spokespeople for SM interest organisations etc. that by the power of their visibility experience discrimination. The pathologising and diagnosis of the World Health Organisation (WHO) are often the direct or indirect cause of these attacks.

As a person interested in SM/fetish, you risk losing your job, custody of your children, problems with neighbours, your innermost circle of friends and your closest family members. This then means that we might not have so many sources of support left in our lives. Many people therefore choose to keep their orientation hidden because of the fear of what could happen if they disclosed this.

As a consequence, many individuals do not report being attacked because of the fear of being further harassed by the police. Even if 36 percent of respondents in the American study described below experience violence and harassment, 96 percent of these didn’t report this. As a taboo minority, SM ers and fetishists also experience a significant degree of suppression and invisibility in society, including in the press. When we are referred to, this is usually in connection with “scandals” where the people in question’s sexual orientation is used as a piquant detail to spice up the story for readers.

Violence and harassment

A study (n=1017) undertaken by the SM rights organisation The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF), shows that belonging to the SM community and SM sexual orientation generally speaking means that an individual exposes themselves for being socially stigmatised.

Thirty-six percent of subjects had been subjected to violence or harassment because of their SM/fetish orientation. This included verbal insults (reported by 87%), physical violence (25%), stalking (19%), damage to property (19%), blackmail (17%), sexual harassment (13%), rape (10%) and other types or violence or harassment (7%).
https://ncsfreedom.org/component/k2/item/452-ncsfs-violence-and-discrimination-survey.html

The swedish police department Säpo point our that lesbians and gay men are the group that is exposed to most violence and persecution in Sweden. The worst attacks have happened at events with a theme of SM and fetish. See:www.revisef65.org/fefestninger.html [Norwegian text only]

EXAMPLE 1
In Norway, the newspaper Klassekampen (27th July 1990) and the monthly publication Blikk have documented how in 1992 a van with nazi symbols drove round the centre of Oslo threatened and shot at gay leather/SM men.

EXAMPLE 2
Nazi attack against RFSL
Nazist violence and murder of homosexuals is a large problem in Sweden. Leather- and SM- gay men are hardest hit.
Source: Qmagazine October 13, 1998
http://www.revisef65.org/linkoping2.html [Swedish text only]

EXAMPLE 3
Neo-nazis screamed, “bögjävlar” (“fucking buggers”) and made Nazi salutes to SM/fetish gay men. Nazi vandalism to the offices of the gay organisation RFSL has set off a debate about the risk level, with RFSL demanding that homosexuals should be covered by the law on hate crimes towards minority populations.
Source: Qmagazine October 19, 1997.
http://www.revisef65.org/linkoping.html [Swedish text only]

Discrimination

Thirty percent of individuals in NCSF’s study had experienced discrimination because of their SM orientation, preference or method of expression. Forty percent had experienced harassment, 25% loss of job or contract, 17% loss of promotion, loss of custody of children 3%, denial of membership to an organisation 11%, unauthorised arrest 5%, or other forms of discrimination.
https://ncsfreedom.org/component/k2/item/452-ncsfs-violence-and-discrimination-survey.html


Discrimination by official bodies

EXAMPLE 4
Lack of legal security for SM-ers
Denmark: Attacker escapes prosecution. By Ole Martin Larsen. Police in Copenhagen have refused to prosecute a man for rape because the victim is a masochist. The woman herself raised the alarm to police from the man’s home. She was found there by a police patrol, dissolved in tears, chained with both foot- and handcuffs and with blood streaming from cuts in her thighs. Despite this, the police consider that there is not sufficient evidence to convict the man.
“Even if I am a masochist, no still means no, and that should be respected. And I said this clearly, amongst other ways by calling the police. What is my legal security worth if this cannot lead to a conviction”, said the woman, a female doctor, to Berlingske Tidende. She has appealed to the public prosecutor about the police’s decision. According to the sadomasochist’s organization SMil, the case is unique, and raises a fundamental question of whether a no from a masochist has the same value as a no from others. Because of this, SMil considers the matter to be concerned with the legal security o f sexual minorities.

Source: Berlingske Tidende/Arbeiderbladet 22th October 1994.

EXAMPLE 5
Murderer goes free because victim was a sadomasochist
In August 1993, an American court of appeal let a brutal murderer free because the victim had written a sadomasochistic fantasy in their diary. In this way, people’s right to consent is placed outside the law because of their sexual orientation, even to the extent that their death has been involved.
Leitner v. State (1983) 631 So. 2d 278-9.
www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/PoliceFreeGaySlaves.html

The “sadomasochist” is often seen as having given up h/er rights to protection from violence or abuse. It is clear that homosexual men as prosecution witnesses face similar difficulties in credibility as heterosexual women. In August of 1993, an appellate court released a man convicted of murder because the murder victim had written a long sadomasochistic sexual fantasy in his journal and the trial court had refused this journal entry as evidence at trial. The fantasy is reproduced for the delight of the court in its entirety in the published case. The unspoken implication here is that a man who fantasizes about homosexual sadomasochism has somehow consented to a brutal murder: “The journal excerpt was essential to the appellant’s defense. It suggested Craven may have desired to be involved, and may have been involved in voluntary sadomasochist sex when he was killed. If he suffered from these desires, then he might have sought out an amenable partner”[20] who eventually killed him. (That wasn’t very “amenable” of the partner if you ask me). Again, the law has constituted the sadomasochist as an always-already willing victim, even to the point of death.[21] This opinion also highlights the idea of “voluntary sadomasochistic sex” as a “desire” that one “suffers from,” a common thread in much of this discourse. The official status of “perverse” desire is thus situated as a medical and psychiatric condition that places those “afflicted” beyond the protection of the law and unworthy of inclusion in “civilized” society.


EXAMPLE 6
English rapist freed because of victim’s SM orientation
In a rape case heard at Leicester Crown Court in England on 29th November 1994, the defendant was freed even though rapist Ben Emerson had admitted the attack. The discovery of SM toys in the woman’s flat, together with her sexual leaning, led to the rapist being freed. Do we see any similarities here to the general debate concerning rape about “loose” and scantily clad women who are not taken seriously when they say “no”. It is actually the woman’s sexual leaning that stands in the dock, not the perpetrator’s acknowledge attack.
Source: Press Association Newsfile 30th November 1994; “Student Cleared in Body-Piercing Rape Case”.

1994: The “crime” of being a pervert: Despite of a self identified rapists confession, on 29 November 1994, a man was found “not guilty” of rape at Leicester Crown Court, because SM-toys was found in the female victim’s apartment. “There can be no doubt from the evidence that what was really on trial during this event was the prosecution witness’s sexuality — the mere existence of an interest in kinky sex made her charge of rape untenable”, writes Ben Attias at the California State University of Northridge, USA. “A woman’s privilege to say “no” to sex is here circumscribed by the discursive apparatus invoked by her sexuality — a woman with an interest in sadomasochism, rubber skirts, and body piercing, judge and jury seem to have reasoned, cannot be raped. Her sexuality implicitly predisposes her to consent to sex — she is inscribed as always already willing.” [Ben Attias http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/PoliceFreeGaySlaves.html] [“Student Cleared in Body-Piercing Rape Case,” Press Association Newsfile, 30 November 1994].

Rape Defendant Ben Emerson

Despite this frank confession, Ben Emerson was awarded a verdict of “not guilty” of rape on 29 November 1994, after a two-minute jury deliberation at Leicester Crown Court. The judge commented to the jury, “I wholeheartedly agree with your verdict.” The judge had actually recommended to the jury that it render a quick decision before even hearing the defense’s case: “At the end of the prosecution case the judge summarized the alleged victim’s evidence and reminded the jury how she and Emerson had oral sex without her objecting at her home….the judge told the jury: ‘When he went to get some baby oil to massage her body, what is this young man to think when he finds in the drawer artificial penises, magazines designed to excite sexually? He finds a riding crop near her bed and chains on the bed,” (ibid). After the trial, a friend of Emerson stated, “Justice was served in the end.”

“Justice,” in this case, meant the release of a self-identified rapist because the “alleged” victim had committed the prior crime of being a pervert. There can be no doubt from the evidence that what was really on trial during this event was the prosecution witness’s sexuality — the mere existence of an interest in kinky sex made her charge of rape untenable. A woman’s privilege to say “no” to sex is here circumscribed by the discursive apparatus invoked by her sexuality — a woman with an interest in sadomasochism, rubber skirts, and body-piercing, judge and jury seem to have reasoned, cannot be raped. Her sexuality implicitly predisposes her to consent to sex — she is inscribed as always-already willing. Ben Emerson, quoted in “Student Cleared in Body-Piercing Rape Case,” Press Association Newsfile (30 November 1994). www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/PoliceFreeGaySlaves.html

EXAMPLE 7
USA: Released after multiple rapes
Donald Kekich, Bruce Battista, Harold Phillips and Daniel Phillips were found not guilty by Ohio’s court of appeal of having carried out rape and mistreatment throughout the night of 14th July 1977. The victim Jane Lucas had been careless enough to write a birthday card to Kekich from which her masochistic interest was clear. By the force of her sexual leaning she was seen as “always willing” and prepared for sex and in practice declared to without the legal capacity to oppose the attack.
Source: [17] State v. Battista, Case Nos. CA 4815 & CA 4816, Court of Appeals of Ohio, Fifth Appellate District, Stark County, Ohio, Slip Opinion 8th November 1978.

On 8 November 1978, an Ohio appellate court handed down a similar verdict to two men accused of rape, felonious assault, and felonious sexual penetration. The court included a detailed description of the events of 14 July 1977 in the court transcript, providing an account of victim Jane Lucas’ testimony “[a]t the risk of memorializing the conduct of the Defendants for the future delight of the sexually perverse.”[17] This invocation of a notion of potential prurient interest in the testimony of the victim is characteristic of the Court’s treatment of the issues involved — outright violence is sexualized and treated as potentially “nonserious” in the serious context of the courtroom.[18]

According to Lucas’ testimony, she drove to Donald Kekich’s apartment with the intention of having sex with him. When they got there, Kekich told her to undress and asked if she needed to use the bathroom. In the bathroom, she was grabbed by a naked man (Howard Phillips, another of the defendants), raped, and severely beaten. Kekich and Phillips continued to rape and beat her for hours, later taking her to the apartment of other friends who joined in her torture, which lasted all night and included being threatened with a shotgun, which was then shoved inside of her while pictures were taken.

The defendants were convicted of “felonious sexual penetration,” but were acquitted of rape and assault on the basis of the discursive apparatus mobilized by the following testimony: “She asked for everything. She asked to blow you, she asked to go to bed with you. I mean, every sex act that happened was through her. I mean came out of her mouth and with each and every guy,” (Bruce Battista). The appellate court vacated convictions on rape and assault charges based on testimony from a friend of Lucas’ that she had overheard Lucas express masochistic fantasies, and the following birthday card sent by Lucas to Kekich, with whom she had a sexual relationship prior to the assault:

“I think you’re a brute, an animal and a Sex Fiend! — And I want you to know I appreciate it! Happy Birthday! To a man who won’t stand anything he doesn’t like, do without anything he desires, or even be polite to people unless they please him. As mean as you are – you will live a century & then some – Happy Birthday, Turkey!

…Love, Janie Lucas”

According to the appellate court, “It is evident in the instant case that Jane Lucas who accompanied Donald Kekich, Bruce Battista, Harold Phillips and Daniel Phillips initially by invitation got much more than she bargained for. However, it is equally obvious from evidence of record and especially from the birthday card admitted as Defendants’ exhibit, supra, that had acts which followed been limited to sexual conduct it would not have been necessary to compel Jane Lucas to submit by force or threat of force and that no charges would have been filed with nothing further being heard of such occurrences.”

Here the mere suggestion that Ms. Lucas might have consented without force to a sado-masochistic sexual relationship is taken as a priori evidence that she cannot legally be raped. Again, her sexuality inscribes her as always-already willing. The appellate court’s conviction of the defendants on charges of “felonious sexual penetration” further indicates that what went wrong on July, 14, 1977, was not so much the violence and terror to which Ms. Lucas was subjected, but rather the introduction of a foreign object into one of her orifices — the defendants, in other words, were convicted of violating a dildo law. (The relevant portion of the law states as follows: “No person without privilege to do so [it is unclear who has this privilege] shall insert any instrument, apparatus, or object into the vaginal or anal cavity of another, not the spouse of the offender, when any of the following apply: (1) The offender purposely compels the other person to submit by force or threat of force…”)

 

EXAMPLE 8
The Spanner case
A hundred years after the case against Oscar Wilde, England has been the only land in Europe to criminalise safe, sane and consenting SM-sex between equal gay partners. Heterosexual sadomasochists have been found not guilty for similar activities. In the European Commission of Human Rights, seven lands voted to free the Spanner gay men, while 11 wanted to convict them. Subsequently the court unanimously followed the majority vote in 1997. The tragedy here is that the Nordic lands would have counted in the balance of votes. If they had supported the Spanner gay men, then the opposite outcome would have been achieved. The Norwegian representative didn’t even turn up to vote. In the English highest court of appeal (1993), the Spanner men were sentenced by three votes to one. The convicted men have received moral and economic support from a collective Norwegian and international gay movement and a range of Norwegian political organisations with many hundreds of thousands of members from both the political left and right. This was a broad mobilisation of people for important principles such as freedom from harassment and not being allowed to work in the public sector, the right to free expression and adult individuals’ right to take their own decisions regarding their bodies and sexuality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Spanner

An official appointed British Law Commission in 1995 came to the conclusion that SM or sadomasochism, short of causing serious or permanently disabling injury, should be no crime between consenting adults. – Under the Law Commission’s new proposals, the Spanner men would never have been prosecuted, according to the director of the civil rights group Liberty, John Wadham (Pink Paper December 22, 1995).
http://www.revisef65.org/lawcomm1.html

Discrimination on the internet

EXAMPLE 9
AOL discriminates against gay SM people
Gay rights organisations threatened to boycott internet service provider AOL because America OnLine discriminated against SMers, whilst racists’ and homophobes’ expressions are tolerated. On Monday, NationalGayLobby.org demonstrated outside the town hall in San Francisco because AOL had removed the user profile of a SM gay man which included the words “submissive” and “bottom”. Activists warned that this would be just the first in a series of protests if AOL didn’t stop the censorship or throw out the homophobes.
Source: Wired News 25.10.1999.
www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,32106,00.html

EXAMPLE 10
SM-censorship on Geocities
The Swedish website Robin1 for lesbians and gay men was censored by Geocities after Robin1 posted up theme pages on fetishism. There was no pornography on the pages. Here, you can read Robins story about the censorship and about his own coming out process as a leatherman. Skeive nyheter December 1997. www.revisef65.org/fesmsensurgeocities.html[Sorry, only in Swedish]

Scandalisation in the press

“Sado-murder” and “sado-rape” are usual headlines when the tabloid press want to bring out the spicy details that are supposed to send a shiver down reader’s spines and sell more papers. Despite modern research having shown that SMers are no more likely to commit crimes, the person’s “sadomasochistic” learning is used as an obvious explanation for why the attack took place. The media do the same as they used to with homosexuals in terms of how they build up stereotypes. It is exactly this kind of media blunder that was in our time the reason that in 1981 an anti-discrimination law was passed in Norway relating to gay men and lesbians (Else Bugge Fougner and Berthold Grünfeld in Norway’s Offentlige Utredninger (NOU) om strafferettslig vern for homofile, 1979).

One of many possible examples, the case described here is the witch hunt against the SM-er and weapons inspector Harvey McGeorge.

EXAMPLE 11
Witch hunt against human rights activist
The American weapons inspector Harvey McGeorge (53) was scandalised and ridiculed in the press throughout the world because he had worked to inform people about safe, sane and consenting SM sex. The weapons inspector’s Swedish boss, Hans Blix, stated however that McGeorge’s private life was not relevant to his position as a weapons inspector. Source: Smia-info 30th November 2002. www.revisef65.org/fefnsm.html [mostly Norwegian. One English link]
http://www.londonfetishscene.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2207:qsaddamasochistq-revealed-as-weapons-inspector&catid=30&Itemid=76

Loss of job

There are many examples where fetishists and SM-ers lose their jobs because of their SM interest and orientation. Others are threatened with dismissal if they continue to inform people publicly about the group’s human rights.

A survey among readers of “The Leather Journal” in 2001 could indicate that one in four fetishists experiences discrimination at work.
http://www.theleatherjournal.com/?q=politics

A study undertaken by the SM rights organisation The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, NCSF, shows that one in 13 SM-ers had lost their job because of their orientation.
https://ncsfreedom.org/component/k2/item/452-ncsfs-violence-and-discrimination-survey.html

EXAMPLE 12
Threatened with dismissal
”Lasse”. In 1996, Oslo local authority threatened to dismiss a 22 year-old Norwegian bisexual male musician from his job in a free theatre group for children if he did not stop giving out information about fetishism in the media. The man was at this point a committee member in the Norwegian fetish organization Colorful People and had taken part in a debate on fetishism on ZTV. The man chose to sacrifice his freedom of expression in order to keep his job.
Source: Personal documentation.

EXAMPLE 13
Dismissal of temporary worker
”Kjersti”. In December 2000, a 26 year-old Norwegian heterosexual woman lost her temporary job as a salesperson in an insurance company in Eastern Norway because of her openness about her SM-orientation. This occurred despite the fact that she had completed internal training with the best results of the entire new intake of temporary staff. At a teambuilding seminar, participants were invited to tell their colleagues something about themselves that the others didn’t know about. The woman wondered whether to tell them about her interest in SM, but felt that this would not be quite right and therefore chose to contribute something else. Later the same evening, after dinner had been eaten and the atmosphere was more relaxed, she opened up to two or three of her colleagues and told them a bit about her interest in SM. This was met with good humour and taken as something “cool” by the colleagues, and in the first couple of weeks back at the office, this was joked about with “kinky” jokes in breaks, especially between the woman and these colleagues. The team leader heard the jokes, but did not share in the humour. Two weeks later, the woman was dismissed. The boss blamed this on the firm’s financial situation and said that he had taken on too many new employee s. However, the consultant in the deputy agency that had sent her to the firm in the first place afterwards gave her a friendly hint not to be so open about private matters in her next job. Two months later, the insurance company advertised again for new temporary staff for its sales team – temporary work with the possibility of permanent employment. The woman chose not to fight for her job, in the belief that she was only a temporary worker and therefore did not have the same rights as a permanent employee. Additionally, she would have been labeled as a troublemaker and would perhaps have missed out on the possibility of getting work through the temping agency in the future.
Source: Personal documentation

EXAMPLE 14
Dismissal of teacher at primary school
“Eros”. Norway, place unknown, 2003. A person of unknown sex, aged between 20 and 40 years. The person worked as a teacher in a primary school and is active in the Norwegian SM scene. In the course of the first few months in 2003, members of the local community around the school worked became aware of the person in question’s SM preferences. The person in question had not “come out” by themselves; this knowledge being made public was due to gossip behind their back. The gossip reached the school’s administration and the person received a sharp reaction from the school’s leadership: they were dismissed from their position at the school. It is hopeless to take up the fight again a dismissal like this. Such dismissals are clearly against the law, but should a person win a case against their employer, it would be just about impossible for the person to return to their workplace. The possibilities are all too great that the remaining employees would be in possession of misinformation and prejudices which would mean that they would not look upon that person as unsuitable to work with children, and as a result would “freeze” them out within the workplace.

EXAMPLE 15
Lost children because of SM diagnosis
“Hilde”. In 1997, a 42–year-old Norwegian woman in Eastern Norway let herself be pressured by her own lawyer to give up her custody of her two daughters after her divorce. The lawyer considered that the woman had a poor legal case because SM is defined as a psychiatric illness in Norway. This happened after her ex-husband got hold of the woman’s holiday photographs which showed her interest in SM – sado-masochism. He passed the photographs on to his lawyer. The children were also informed about the woman’s orientation. Today, the woman lives almost 40 Norwegian miles (400 kilometres/248 English miles) away from her children, but has partially regained contact with them after many years without contact.
Source: SMil-bladet, no. 2, 2002.

EXAMPLE 16
Children lost their father for 10 years
“Severin”. In 1983, a 39-year-old Norwegian man, who had been open with his wife of 12 years about his homosexual SM-orientation, lost shared custody rights of his three children (6, 10 and 12 years) because of his fetish- and SM-orientation. The smallest details of the man’s private sexual life was described by his ex-wife and her new husband in the court case (with jury). After this, he did not see his children for 10 years, until them became old enough to themselves make contact with him. Today, the man has a good relationship to them. An important element of the case is that the man was granted visitation rights to the children, something that was sabotaged by his ex-wife throughout the years of separation from his children.
Source: Personal documentation.

EXAMPLE 17
SM-preference does not affect caring ability
“Janne”. A 28-year-old Norwegian heterosexual woman had her parental rights to her two small boys under the age of six withdrawn in 2000 after she had asked the Child Protection department for help after the break-up of her partnership with the children’s father. Her ex-partner later became aware of her new interest in SM via an unknown source and informed the Child Protection department of this. SM-orientation was taken as a sign of illness and that the woman was not fit to be a parent. She was also reported for inadequate parenting of her children. The ”judgment” on the loss of parental rights including the woman’s SM-orientation, was announced by the Child Protection department in the presence of the children. After this, the woman was only allowed to have the children for between one and a half to two hours, one or two times a month, under supervision. She was not allowed to see the children in her own home. It became clear in the time following the judgment that the children had not received inadequate parenting from the woman, but instead one or both were born with a mild learning difficulty, which made him/them somewhat more demanding than unaffected children. The woman has employed a lawyer who is pursuing the case. The woman also wishes that something good should come out of the whole affair; namely that experts used in comparative cases in the future should intuitively know that the sexual preferences of adults – what one enjoys together with one’s partner – has nothing to do with a person’s qualities as a parent.
Source: Personal documentation.

Trashing: SM women harassed by other women

As with other types of attack, it looks as if women are especially vulnerable. According to the Jad Keres report from 1994, 56% of lesbian or bisexual women have experienced discrimination and violence from other women in the lesbian scene because of their interest in SM

https://ncsfreedom.org/component/k2/item/453-violence-against-s/m-women-within-the-lesbian-community-a-nation-wide-survey.html

One quarter of the sm women surveyed were physically assaulted by members of the lesbian community.

Discrimination within the lesbian community affects 30% of the women surveyed because of their sm orientation, including being ejected or refused admittance from a public accommodation, denied housing, and/or refused membership in a social, recreational, political, educational or spiritual lesbian group.

The lesbian author Pat Califia (Patrick Califa-Rice) in an interview with the Swedish paper Homoplaneten describes the harassment “trashing” of American SM activists:

“SM lesbians are beaten up and closed out from women’s social meeting places. Our literature is burned, they call our employers and say that we are perverts so that we lose our jobs”.
Source: “Samtaler med Pat Califia” [Talks with Pat Califia]. RFSL 12.10.1998.
http://www.rfsl.se/?p=3815&aid=4757

Things show that trashing where the most radical feminists harass women also happens in Norway. SM lesbians here too are denied entry to women’s social meeting places.

EXAMPLE 18
“Banners that express support of SM go against the basis guidelines for
having banners and the “8th of March”- days intentions and are therefore unacceptable in the parade.
Decision of the 8th of March committee in Oslo on 20th February 1997.
Source: Letter and telephone call from 8. mars-komiteen 1997.

EXAMPLE 19
A 32-year old lesbian woman was in 1997 outed and publicly exhibited as an SM‘er at her place of work by a Norwegian extreme radical feminist. The 32-year-old had taken part in a newspaper debate on SM and arranged a meeting on this theme. The feminist participated in a educational gathering at the woman’s workplace. The 32-year-old was not at the gathering, but figured as a therapist on a video used in the session. The feminist recognised the lesbian women on the video and said in front of the victim’s colleagues, head of department and representatives from other institutions “It is shocking that this woman works as a therapist when she is an SM-er”.
When the lesbian woman came back to work after the weekend, shocked colleagues told her what had been said. The victim felt that she had to turn up at a meeting of all the employees and prepared herself for the fact that she might no longer be able to work there. After this, the situation calmed down and the woman no longer works there.
Source: personal documentation

EXAMPLE 20
It can seem as if certain feminists systematically teach women to fear SM women and SM lesbians. The same 32-year-old mentioned above also experienced in 1995 that a colleague at an institute for outreach work with young people refused to work with the SM woman “because she couldn’t feel safe with the woman’s attitude towards violence”. The woman was called in by her boss in connection with the matter, but he didn’t have any problems with the SM lesbian’s sexual orientation. Neither did the third person in the team, a muslim American, have problems with this. The woman was at that time the leader of an SM rights organisation.
Source: personal documentation.