Categories
English Sexual politics

US Safer S&M Web Sites Closes Down

UK proposal
Prison sentences of three years for private possession of SM images

In the last few months the US and UK governments have announced plans to crack down on personal SM profiles on the internet. Prison sentences of three years are being reported in the press for British inhabitants who download SM images from the Internet or have them stored at home if the legislation comes into force.
http://www.unfettered.co.uk/bdsmrights/backlash.html

The US Justice Department June 22. tightened up the Law 18 U.S.C. 2257, so that several web pages with personal SM profiles had to shut down or self-sensor their content. This far, www.boundandgagged.com, malebots.com, www.bondagezine.com and www.LeatherNavigator.com has closed down or has self-sensored their sites.

These proposals will also concern Norwegian and other European users of UK and US web communities, Svein Skeid in ReviseF65 say. Such restrictions can harm the work to stop hiv, and hinder prophylactic health work for the SM population, he says.

September 22. the US attorney General Alberto Gonzales, The Department of Justice and the FBI announced that any website hosted in the US that has content containing “bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behaviour” should be forewarned that obscenity prosecutions is possible. Additionally, Federal sentencing guidelines state that any obscenity-related punishment should be “enhanced for sadomasochistic material”.

Please support the Free Speech Coalition and the The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, which have challenged lawsuits against the Justice Department and the Communications Decency Act, respectively. www.freespeechcoalition.com
www.ncsfreedom.org/

Midori, an author who teaches classes on bondage, has removed her website BeautyBound.com citing fear of obscenity prosecution. The SM site www.mrsdungeon.com now ask their members to remove all pictures showing genital SM-activity from their personal profiles.

Read the columne of John Pendal, International Mr Leather 2003
www.iml2003.com/being27.htm

www.rubberzone.com/apm/article.php?id=536 [dead link]

www.ncsfreedom.org/news/2005/102005ObscenityWave.htm [dead link]

Categories
English Norsk Seksualpolitikk Sexual politics

Oslopride 2010

Fetish/SM/Leather pictures from The Christopher Street Day Parade in Oslo 2010

Fra Rådhusplassen etter paradens avslutning. Utsnitt av de to bildene fra Rådhustrappa nederst til høyre på siden.

Gay and straight fetish and SM people celebrated that they have been taken off the sick list in Norway. Click on the pictures for bigger versions.
Still it is necessary for people to hide their SM and fetish identity in Norway.

Spent stemning i Platous gate på Grønland før avmarsj kl 13. Det er ikke alle yrkesgrupper det er mulig for å være åpen fetisjist eller SM-er. Foto: Bloodykiss. Klikk på bildene for større versjon.

For første gang var starten av paraden lagt over multikulturelle Grønland der det også bor mange homofile og lesbiske. Her er fetisj/sm-seksjonen nettopp kommet inn i Grønlandsleiret med masse tilskuere langsmed paraderuten.
Klikk på bildet for større versjon.

For the first time in history, the CSD parade in Oslo started in the multietnic urban area Grønland.

Click on the picture for bigger version.

Både fetisj og SM:
Det var en fin blanding av fetisjtøy og vanlige klær. Siste bilde tatt av bloodykiss. Klikk på bildene for å se større versjoner.

Her er fetisj/sm-seksjonen kommet til byens paradegate Karl Johan:

Arrangører av fetisj/sm-seksjonen var SMia, SMil, SLM og Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65. People were encouraged to hold hands to celebrate that fetish and sm diagnoses are removed in Norway by February 1, 2010.

Click on the pictures for bigger versions.

Arrangørene oppfordret folk til å holde hender for å feire den norske friskmeldingen 1.2.2010. Blå skjorte i midten av bildet er leder i Diagnoseutvalget Revise F65 Svein Skeid.


Flere bilder fra fetisj/sm-seksjonen.

Begge foto: bloodykiss

Bildene er klikkbare for å se større oppløsning.


 

Flere bilder fra fetisj/sm-seksjonen.

Begge foto: bloodykiss

Bildene er klikkbare for større oppløsning.


English
summary


During the Christopher Street Day Parade in Oslo June 26, 2010, Gay and Straight fetish and BDSM organizations celebrated that fetishism and sadomasochism are no longer diseases in Norway.


“Taken off the sick list Feb 1, 2010”
Her passerer fetisj/sm-seksjonen Asylet på Grønland. I bakgrunnen øverst til høyre ser du høyblokkene på Enerhaugen, også kalt “Gay Towers” på homsemunne. Foto: Bloodykiss. Klikk på bildet for å se en større versjon.

Les mer om den norske friskmeldingen her.

Read how the fetish and SM diagnoses were deleted in Norway February 1, 2010.

Flere paradebilder fra Dagbladet, NRK, Aftenposten, Blikk, Gaysir og Tv2-nyhetene.
Klikk på minibildene for å se artikkel/bilder/video:


VGTV:
“Det var knyttet en viss spenning til at paraden av homofile, transseksuelle og sadomasochister skulle passere gjennom et strøk der det har forekommet angrep på homofile par de siste årene. Men noe muslimsk moralpoliti var ikke å se.”

Click on the small pictures above to see media pics and videoes from the CSD-parade in Oslo 2010.


En fargerik forsamling som jublet over friskmeldingen på Rådhustrappa etter paraden.

Colorful leather/fetish/SM people celebrating being taken off the sick list. Picture in front of the City Hall after the CSD parade in Oslo June 26, 2010.

Click on the picture for a bigger version.


Oppstilling på Rådhustrappa etter paraden. Jeg talte på et tidspunkt 34 deltagere i fetisj/sm-seksjonen. Det kan ha vært enda flere ettersom folk gikk ut og inn av seksjonen. I alt gikk 4-5000 tusen i paraden og 50.000 sto langs ruten og så på.

Klikk på bildet for større versjon.

Categories
English Seksualpolitikk Sexual politics

ICD Revision White Paper

Oslo, Norway, September 24, 2009
Dead links updated November 22, 2011

ICD Revision White Paper

ICD Revision White Paper to WHO from Revise F65
(
Revise F65’s first report to WHO)

http://www.revisef65.org/icd_whitepaper.html

ICD WHITE PAPER

By Cand. Psychol Odd Reiersøl and Revise F65 leader Svein Skeid
Proposal to the ICD-11 Revision of Chapter V, Mental and Behavioural Disorders, F65 and F64.

Invitation from WHO to Revise F65

We want to thank classification coordinator Dr. T. Bedirhan Üstün M.D. at WHO in Geneva for inviting Revise F65 to collaborate with the work leading up to the ICD-11 revision.

In an email of May 7, 2007, Dr. Üstün wrote:
“The revision process of ICD from 10 to 11 is about to start and will be revised for the 11th version tentatively in 2015. The revision work will include special attention to Chapter V Mental and behavioural disorders (F00-F99). Thanks for your interest in the ICD work and we hope to collaborate with you in the revision process.”
T. Bedirhan Üstün, M.D., Coordinator, Classifications, Assessment and Terminology, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Revise F65 was formally established in Norway in 1997 with the purpose to abolish the SM and fetish diagnoses in the F65 category of the ICD.  Among the Revise F65 members are health care professionals and human rights activists. During these years, articles have been published and presentations have been given (1,2,3,4,5).

In our opinion the following four ICD diagnoses should be abolished:

  • F65.0 Fetishism
  • F65.1 Fetishistic transvestism
  • F65.5 Sadomasochism
  • F65.6 Multiple disorders of sexual preference

In addition the F64.1 Dual-role transvestism diagnosis should be abolished.


Health political and professional arguments for the human rights reform

In our opinion the five above mentioned diagnoses should be repealed because they are superfluous, outdated, non scientific and stigmatizing. The article by Reiersøl and Skeid in “Sadomasochism, Powerful Pleasures” (1) gives thorough argumentation for removing the F65.0, F65.1 and the F65.5 diagnoses.

As the F65.6 diagnosis combines several diagnoses including the three above mentioned, it should also be removed. The F64.1 diagnosis is a bit special in the sense that it is classified as a gender identity disorder type diagnosis, but it is very similar to the F65.1. A separate section describes the issue in more detail.

Health political arguments

The diagnoses were repealed at a national level in Sweden January 1, 2009 (6,7). The Dual-role transvestism and the SM diagnoses were repealed in Denmark respectively August 19, 1994 and May 1, 1995 (8). The health authorities in these two countries cited in their reasoning; health political, health promoting and human rights arguments.

The Swedish board of health used the following phrases:

  • “not perverse” (7,9,10)
  • “not illness” (7,9,11)
  • “private matters” (7,9)
  • “citizens entitled to equal rights” (9)
  • “no reinforcement of prejudices” (7,9,11,12)
  • “from earlier times in history” (7,9)
  • “risk of social stigmatizing” (11,12)
  • “entitled to self confidence in the same way as homosexuals” (9)

Private matter

The Danish decision was made by the health minister, Yvonne Herløv Andersen, referring to this type of sexual preference as a private matter that has nothing to do with society (8).

The newspaper Dagens Nyheter November 16, 2008 quoted the head of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), Lars-Erik Holm: “Society has nothing to do with the sexual preferences of these individuals” (7,9).

According to Nettavisen November 17, 2008 the head of the Norwegian Directorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet), Bjørn-Inge Larsen, said: “There is no basis, neither within today’s social norms nor within health political thinking, for labeling several of these phenomena as illnesses” (10).

Stigmatizing

The Swedish revision was done because these psychiatric diagnoses “may contribute to preserve and reinforce prejudices in society, which in turn increases the risk of social stigmatizing of individuals” (11).

“The abolition of  the diagnosis of homosexuality I believe to a certain extent has contributed to a different view than in the 60’s and 70’s of homosexuals in the general population. The abolition gave the homosexuals self confidence because they no longer have a psychiatric stigma. We hope that the current revision will give a similar result”, said  the head of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), Lars-Erik Holm (9).

In a press release NCSF, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, applauds the Swedish decision, and says:

“We know from the hundreds of requests for help that NCSF gets every year through our Incident Response program that the Sexual Sadism, Sexual Masochism, Fetishism and Transvestic Fetishism diagnoses in the DSM reinforce the negative stereotypes and stigma against alternative sexual behaviors.” (13)

The Norwegian Directorate of Health has since 1996 as a goal to work for counteracting the stigmatizing of sexual minorities (14).

The strategy plan for prevention of HIV and STD points out “the danger of stigmatizing and discriminating against vulnerable groups when doing  preventive work, and the importance of a holistic approach to sexual identity, sexual health and sexual behavior” (15) (pdf file).

Preventative measures

In our opinion, outdated and non scientific diagnoses such as these, constitute an infringement of the human rights of the minorities that are described, and they hinder prophylactic health care efforts that are needed in these groups of people. Deleting the diagnoses may strengthen the “identity building” of the SM/fetish population and contribute positively to the “collective self respect” which is necessary for reaching the group with preventative measures like HIV and STD prevention.

According to Norwegian health authorities “A person’s possibility for self protection against a virus that is sexually transmitted is only to a certain extent influenced by knowledge. The feeling of self value necessary for demanding or having a wish to protect oneself is influenced by societal factors, and only a few of these factors are under the control of the health authorities. We emphasize that the cooperation with marginalized and vulnerable groups has an influence on what could be called a collective self respect” (16).

The Norwegian health authorities have taken an active interest in improving the self respect and the identity of the SM group, to increase the ability of protection against sexually transmitted diseases (17).

Discrimination

For many people, SM and fetishism is more than just behavior, it is part of their sexual orientation and identity (23). In our opinion, stigmatizing minorities by considering their personal orientation as a psychiatric condition is as disrespectful as discriminating against people because of their race, ethnicity or religion.

Like the earlier diagnosis of Homosexuality that is no longer applied by the WHO, the SM and Fetish diagnoses are rarely used for therapeutic purposes. Instead, these definitions are abused to justify harassment and discrimination of the SM/fetish population from laymen and judicial institutions.

Much of the discrimination is directly or indirectly a result of the diagnoses. A psychiatric diagnosis may have a major influence on a person’s possibility of getting work and on the evaluation of a person’s ability to raise children, for example after a divorce.

As with other forms of abuse, women are the main sufferers, losing their jobs, or even their children, because of their SM/fetish love, lifestyle and self-expression (18).

The Norwegian National LGBT Association (LLH) and the National coalition for sexual freedom (NCSF), have published respectively a case study and a survey indicating the stigmatizing function of the F65 diagnoses and that these diagnoses legitimize discrimination (18,13,19).

By repealing the diagnoses, the sexual minorities in question may breathe a bit more easily and be less afraid of private and public discrimination.

In a letter of June 11, 2003 to Revise F65, the Norwegian Association for Clinical Sexology says:  “The Norwegian Association for Clinical Sexology in its support wishes to emphasize that the use of psychiatric diagnoses in relation to homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual fetishists, sadomasochists and transvestic fetishists is stigmatizing and therefore an encroachment upon this group as a whole”.

Safe, sane and consensual

There is no reason to doubt that the SM movement has  “grown up” and taken responsibility over the last 20-30 years, by establishing safe words, security routines, pride symbols and normative measures like the internationally recognized moral and ethical principle “Safe, sane and consensual”. As opposed to dangerous perpetration, SM activities are mutually wanted and consensual activities that produce health promoting and pleasurable hormones (20,21,22,23,38).

Dead links updated November 22, 2011

Lack of homogeneity

Chapter F65 does not represent a homogeneous totality. Different diagnoses without any logical connection are combined in an unclear and non scientific way only because they are “unusual” phenomena.

The diagnoses are superfluous

Any psychiatric condition that members of the group may suffer from is as for the rest of the population covered by the other, non paraphilic, diagnoses as for example depression, OCD, anxiety disorders, personality disorders or psychoses.

If for example a person is preoccupied with her fetish to the extent that it becomes a problem in her daily life, she could for example become diagnosed with an obsessive compulsive disorder.

When homosexuality was removed as a diagnosis in 1977, the Norwegian Psychiatric Association stated that they were “doubtful towards the application of psychiatric diagnoses on isolated aspects of behavior”. A person showing a particular behavior is not diagnosed according to that behavior, but on the basis of a set of symptoms. “Ideally speaking, psychiatric diagnoses should be related to causal connections in a wider perspective, a broader aspect of suffering, reduced social functioning and/or a desire for treatment”, they stated.

Sleeping diagnoses

As for the former homosexuality diagnosis, the fetish and SM diagnoses are virtually not being used by the medical profession today, at least not in Norway. They are not being used to treat people’s illnesses.

  • “The main objective of diagnosis is patient care”. (IGDA workgroup WPA 2003; The WPA International Guidelines for Diagnostic Assessment by the World Psychiatric Association 2003).
  • In a letter to the SM organization Smil-Norway of Desember 19, 2008 the health authorities inform that “None of the diagnostic codes in question were reported to the Norwegian Patient Register in 2007 or 2008. This gives a strong indication that the codes are not in use”.
  • The Norwegian Directorate of Health informs the medical publication “Dagens Medisin” that according  to the Norwegian Patient Register the diagnostic codes in question were not used last year, i.e. in 2007 (24).
  • Senior counselor, Arild Johan Myrberg at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, reported that it was difficult to find any health care professional in Norway that was willing to defend the diagnoses (25).

The only function of the diagnoses, in our opinion, is to stigmatize a subpopulation and to make discrimination legitimate. That contradicts the hippocratic ethics of the medical profession not to harm (26).

Science and prejudice

Psychiatry otherwise usually regards people as healthy as long as there is no evidence of psychopathology. International research shows the same tendency whether the surveys are qualitative or quantitative, whether they are performed by telephone, on the Internet or by personal interview: Sadomasochists have no more psychiatric problems or disorders than others(22).

In our opinion, diagnoses of fetishism and SM should be based on a scientific foundation, not on cultural prejudices.

Is being different an illness?

In our opinion the following criterion, G1, labeling people as ill, is unclear, judgmental and unscientific: “[]urges and fantasies involving unusual objects or activities” (27).

Fetishists and SM-people represent a group of perhaps 5-10 percent of the population and is increasingly considered a normal variation in society (28).

“Unusual” sexual interests are commonly found in the general population (29).

An important question: Is  “unusual” meant as a statistical or a normative concept? In earlier days several sexual practices were regarded as abnormal, for example homosexuality, masturbation, oral and anal sex. Extreme sports and religious flagellation may also be regarded as unusual. But so far neither  base jumpers or bullfighters nor flagellators have been labeled perverse (1).

Sick without intercourse?

In the HIV preventative efforts in Norway, non penetrating fetish and SM sex is regarded as one possible way  to reduce contagion in the target group. This stands in opposition to the ICD-10 where lack of intercourse is one main argument for labeling fetishism as pathological.

“Fetishistic fantasies are common, buy they do not amount to a disorder unless they lead to rituals that are so compelling and unacceptable as to interfere with sexual intercourse[….]”(ICD-10, F65.0 Fetishism).

Perhaps the World Health Organization should start looking at non penetrating sex as one of several ways to stop the HIV epidemic and the population explosion?

“These diagnoses are rooted in a time when everything other than the heterosexual missionary position were seen as sexual perversions”. Head of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), Lars-Erik Holm (7).

Confusing SM with violence

Any kind of sexuality may be perverted, not the least “normal” heterosexual activity, if it is not based on equality and consent.

Violence is usually understood  as use of physical force, and there must also be a lack of consent and a wish to do harm.

ICD-10 does not distinguish between consensual SM and harmful violence. This non distinction stands in opposition to modern research and contributes to maintaining the stigma towards that group of people.

“Sexual sadism is sometimes difficult to distinguish from cruelty in sexual situations or anger related to eroticism. Where violence is necessary for erotic arousal, the diagnosis can be clearly established” (Chapter F65.5 Sadomasochism).

  • In a survey from 2003, professor in psychology Pamela Conolly found that SM masters do not experience greater pleasure during non consensual cruelty than do the control group of non SM people, and the masochists did not seek compulsive or harmful forms of pain (22).
  • This finding is corroborated by the psychologists Cross and Matheson in their research from 2006. They found no evidence for contentions about antisocial, psychopathic or violent SM sadists (22).
  • John Noyes goes even further and says that SM may even contribute to the reduction of societal violence: “As a staged aggression, [sadomasochism] may even be in a position to defuse social violence and to put forward alternative and socially viable models of coping with aggression in a manner that minimizes its negative effects.” (30)

See also: “SM versus abuse” (21)

Psychological stress

Another main criterion for chapter F65 is the G2:

“The individual either acts on the urges or is markedly distressed by them”. The concept of “distress” also appears under “F65.0 Fetishism”.

The criterion does not take into account updated knowledge on stigma. Stigmatization by society causes self stigmatization, guilt, shame and psychological distress in minority groups (31). It is not necessarily the SM or fetish activity in and of itself that is problematic.

The American DSM manual in 1994 introduced a B-criterion which states that fetishists or SM people are not ill unless the activities cause significant psychological, physical or social problems.

“The fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning” (32).

The DSM-IV revision, in 1994, was seen as a step forward, but is far from satisfactory. Stigma knowledge shows that many psychological, physical and social problems are not caused by the individual afflicted, but by taboos, prejudices, and discrimination imposed by the environment(33). See also “DSM Revision White Paper” (29).

The dual-role transvestism diagnosis

Although the F64.1 diagnoses is not within the F65 category, we find it logical to include it in the list of  diagnoses we want to repeal. It resembles the F65.1 Fetishistic transvestism. The main difference seems to be that there is no sexual excitement involved in the F64.1. In our opinion it is just as discriminating and stigmatizing as the F65 diagnoses, so the general arguments for removing the F65 diagnoses also apply to the F64.1.

Modern gender research shows that there is no longer any basis for claiming only two genders.  In later years individuals have presented with gender variations beyond woman and man, and these individuals are not confused, even though they may confuse people around them (34). A few people, on the other hand, may suffer from gender dysphoria. These people may need medical attention and intervention, and the basis for that should be covered, if not in the other F64 categories, then certainly somewhere in the diagnostic system. Another interesting fact is that there is no transvestism diagnosis under Gender Identity Disorders in the DSM IV. This supports our contention that the phenomenon of “transvestism” is not something to diagnose.

Cooperation between DSM and ICD

We understand that there is substantial cooperation between revisions in the American DSM and revisions in the ICD. In that context we would like to point out the NCSF website (29) which has references to among others Charles Moser who has written several articles about the DSM paraphilia diagnoses over the last years (35,36,37,23,38).

 

Sincerely,

Revise F65

Svein Skeid (leader)                         Odd Reiersøl (psychologist)

Dead links updated November 22, 2011

Footnote 1.

Reiersol O. & Skeid S. (2006). The ICD Diagnoses of Fetishism and Sadomasochism.  In P.J. Kleinplatz and C. Moser (Eds.). Sadomasochism, Powerful Pleasures (pp. 243-262). Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://books.google.no/books?id=iHkT5Eyj7H0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Published simultaniously in The Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 50, Issue 2&3, May 2006, pages 243-262. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?sid=M6XM7W1WEHBQ8K7CX9SA3CDGU3SU9LUB&ID=65910

Footnote 2.

Fetisj og SM-diagnosene i ICD-10 [The Fetish and SM Diagnoses in ICD-10]. (2008, June). Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening [Journal of the Norwegian Psychological Association, Vol 45]. Pp 754-756. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.psykologtidsskriftet.no/index.php?seks_id=52392&a=2&sok=1

Footnote 3.

Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.reviseF65.org

Footnote 4.

Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReviseF65

Footnote 5.

About the ReviseF65 project. Professional and health political work 1994-2009. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/aboutrevisef65.html

Footnote 6.

Fetish and SM diagnoses deleted in Sweden. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/Sweden.html

Footnote 7.

Transvestism ‘no longer a disease’ in Sweden (2008, November 17). The Local. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.thelocal.se/15728/20081117/

Footnote 8.

Denmark withdraws SM from Diagnosis-list (1995, April 1). Politiken, page A7. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/denmark.html

Footnote 9.

Nu ska Sara-Claes slippa bli stämplad som sjuk [Sara-Claes will not any longer be stigmatizised as sick]. (2008, November 16). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/nu-ska-sara-claes-slippa-bli-stamplad-som-sjuk

Footnote 10.

Dette er ikke perverst lenger [This is not any longer perverse]. (2008, November 17). Nettavisen. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.nettavisen.no/jobb/article2402153.ece

Footnote 11.

Koder i klassifikationen av sjukdomar och hälsoproblem utgår [Codes in the Classification of Diseases are removed]. (2008, November 17). Socialstyrelsen [The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare]. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.revisef65.org/socialstyrelsen.html

Footnote 12.

Så blev transvestiter friska över en natt! [Transvestites taken off the sick list overnight]. (2008, November 17). QX. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.qx.se/samhalle/8544/sa-blev-transvestiter-friska-over-en-natt

Footnote 13.

Sweden takes sexual behaviors off their disease list. (2008, November 25). NCSF, National coalition for sexual freedom. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from https://ncsfreedom.org/key-programs/dsm-v-revision-project/dsm-v-program-page/item/316-press-release-sweeden-takes-sexual-behaviors-off-their-disease-list.html

Footnote 14.

Norwegian health authorities about healt preventive work. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/forebyggende.html

Footnote 15.

Ansvar og omtanke – Strategiplan for forebygging av hiv og soi [Responsibility and consideration – Norwegian national strategy plan to prevent hiv and sexually transmitted infections]. Helsedirektoratet [The Norwegian National Board of Health]. Pp. 3, 3, 13, 21, 26 and 40. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.helsedirektoratet.no/vp/multimedia/archive/00002/Ansvar_og_omtanke_2200a.pdf

Footnote 16.

Handlingsplan mot hiv/aids-epidemien 1996-2000 [Norwegian national strategy plan to prevent HIV and STD 1996-2000]. Helsedirektoratet [The Norwegian National Board of Health]. Pp 25 and 33.

Footnote 17.

Tilskuddsbrev til fetisj & SM gruppen SMia-Oslo fra Sosial- og helsedirektoratet via kap. 719 post 70 [Letter to the Fetish & SM group SMia-Oslo from The Norwegian National Board of Health]. (2002, April 25).

Footnote 18.

Discrimination and violence towards the SM/fetish population. Revise F65. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/discrimination.html

Footnote 19.

NCSF’s Violence and Discrimination Survey. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttps://ncsfreedom.org/component/k2/item/452-ncsfs-violence-and-discrimination-survey.html

Footnote 20.

Safe, sane, and consensual as a moral ethical principle and cornerstone of SM acticity. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.revisef65.org/sikker.html

Footnote 21.

SM versus abuse. Revise F65. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.revisef65.org/violence.html

Footnote 22.

No more psychopathology among SM-people. Revise F65. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/psychopathology.html

Footnote 23.

Sexual Freedom NOW. Physicians and psychiatrists about SM as a valid expression of adult consensual sexuality and an important part of people’s sexual orientation. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.revisef65.org/NOWSM.html

Footnote 24.

Transvestittisme og SM ikke lenger en sykdom i Sverige [Transvestism and SM are no longer diseases in Sweden]. (2008, November 17). Dagens Medisin [Medicine Today]. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.dagensmedisin.no//nyheter/2008/11/17/transvetittisme-ikke-lenge/index.xml

Footnote 25.

Meeting at the Norwegian National Board of Health, May 11, 2009.

Footnote 26.

The Hippocratic Oath. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

Footnote 27.

World Health Organization (1992). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders. Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. Geneva, Switzerland.

World Health Organization (1993). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders. Diagnostic criteria for research. Geneva, Switzerland.

Footnote 28.

Quantity of the sm/fetish-population. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.revisef65.org/antall_eng.html

Footnote 29.

DSM Revision White Paper. NCSF, National coalition for sexual freedom. Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttps://ncsfreedom.org/key-programs/dsm-v-revision-project/dsm-revision-white-paper.html

Footnote 30.

Noyes, J. K., Ph.D. (1997). The mastery of submission: Inventions of masochism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, page 30.

Footnote 31.

Goffman, E. (1963) Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall.

Footnote 32.

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington DC.

American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Revised). Washington DC.

Footnote 33.

About The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.revisef65.org/DSM.html

Footnote 34.

Heino Meyer Bahlburg: Presentation at the WAS (World Association for Sexual Health) conference in Goteborg, June 2009.

Footnote 35.

Moser, Charles & Kleinplatz, Peggy J. (2005). DSM-IV-TR and the Paraphilias: An Argument for Removal. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality (2005), 17(3/4), 91-109. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/MoserKleinplatz.htm

Footnote 36.

Moser, C. & Kleinplatz, P.J. (2002). Transvestic fetishism: Psychopathology or iatrogenic artifact? New Jersey Psychologist, 52(2) 16-17. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://home.netcom.com/%7edocx2/tf.html

Footnote 37.

Moser, C. (1999). The Psychology of Sadomasochism (S/M). In S. Wright (Ed.) SM Classics (pp. 47-61). New York, Masquerade Books. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/BIB/SM.htm#S/M_PRACT

Footnote 38.

Moser, C. & Wright S.. What is SM? Retrieved September 19, 2009, fromhttp://www.leatherleadership.org/library/whatsm.htm

Categories
Other languages Sexual politics

The Swedish board of health (Socialstyrelsen) on BDSM 2008


Koder i klassifikationen av sjukdomar och hälsoproblem utgår

The content of this page was retrieved August 1, 2009. The link is now dead: http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/Aktuellt/Nyheter/FirstPage/2008/Q4/081117nyhet.htm

Socialstyrelsen tar nu bort vissa koder i den svenska klassifikationen av sjukdomar och hälsoproblem. Bland annat utgår ”Transvestism” samt ”Fetischism”och ”Sadomasochism” från och med den 1 januari 2009.

– Att koder för till exempel vissa sexuella beteenden finns i klassifikationen uppfattas av många som stötande och kan bidra till att bevara och förstärka fördomar i samhället. Det vill vi inte medverka till, säger Lars-Erik Holm, generaldirektör på Socialstyrelsen.

De senaste åren har Socialstyrelsen kontaktats flera gånger av RFSU och andra intresseorganisationer som vill att förändringar görs i den svenska versionen av ICD-10 –  ”Klassifikation av hälsoproblem och sjukdomar 1997”. De ändringar som nu genomförs bygger på konkreta förslag från dessa organisationer.

ICD (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) är ett klassifikationssystem som bland annat används för att gruppera sjukdomar, olika tillstånd, beteenden och sociala faktorer som kan vara anledning till kontakt med sjukvården.

Flera kritiska röster

Systemet utgör också en grund för att få information om vilket arbete som utförs inom hälso- och sjukvården: vad patienter vårdas för, vilken behandling de får och vad resultaten blir. Informationen är viktig för att kunna följa upp och utvärdera sjukvårdens resultat och kvalitet.

Kritikerna menar att klassifikationen, som den är utformad idag, på ett olyckligt sätt ger en sjukdomsstämpel åt företeelser som har med könsidentitet att göra, exempelvis transvestism, men även vissa sexuella beteenden. Genom att ändra den svenska klassifikationen vill nu Socialstyrelsen ge en tydlig signal om att vissa diagnoser som specificeras i klassifikationen inte ska ses som sjukdomar. De specifika koder som nu utgår används i praktiken mycket sällan.

Förändringen innebär att följande koder utgår: ”Transvestism med dubbla roller”, ”Könsidentitetsstörning i barndomen” samt ”Fetischism”, ”Fetischistisk transvestism”, ”Sadomasochism” och ”Multipla störningar av sexuell preferens”.

Flera av de aktuella koderna togs bort i Sverige redan 1981 ur Klassifikation av sjukdomar 1968 (fjärde upplagan), motsvarande WHO:s ICD-8, och fanns inte heller med i den svenska versionen av ICD-9. I samband med att den svenska versionen av ICD-10 infördes år 1997 återinfördes vissa koder som en konsekvens av att man strikt följde den nya internationella versionen av ICD.

Tar upp frågan internationellt

– Vi vet att klassifikationens koder ofta uppfattas som sjukdomar, oavsett vad de egentligen står för. Det är olyckligt eftersom det kan bidra till att bevara och förstärka fördomar i samhället, vilket i sin tur ökar risken för social stigmatisering hos enskilda. Det vill vi bidra till att förändra, säger Lars-Erik Holm.

– Vi tänker också fortsätta att ta upp den här frågan internationellt i samband med att WHO nu har inlett arbetet med att ta fram nästa version av klassifikationen, ICD-11. Men det kommer att ta tid och WHO:s arbete kommer sannolikt inte att vara avslutat förrän tidigast 2016, säger Lars-Erik Holm.

Kontakt

Lars-Erik Holm (Nås via presstjänsten 075-247 30 05)

Uppdaterad: 18 november 2008

 


English
text


This press release in Swedish from The Swedish board of health (Socialstyrelsen) was retrieved from their home page August 1, 2009. The link is now dead.

Socialstyrelsen announced on their home page November 17, 2008, that six diagnoses of sexual behaviours will be deleted from Sweden’s national version of ICD diagnoses starting on January 1, 2009. The six diagnoses include sadomasochism, fetishism, transvestism, fetishistic transvestitism, multiple disorders of sexual preferences and gender identity disorder in youth.

The Swedish revision was done because these psychiatric diagnoses “may contribute to preserve and reinforce prejudices in society, which in turn increases the risk of social stigmatizing of individuals”.

Read more here!

 

Categories
English Norsk Seksualpolitikk Sexual politics

Spannersaken – ny heksejakt

Spannersaken – ny heksejakt

– Sosialister og andre som vil kjempe for frigjøring må være klart imot at staten, eller andre skal grafse i eller kontrollere folks privatliv, skriver Internasjonale Sosialister i en kommentar til den statlige undertrykkingen og trakasseringen av homser, lesber og SMere i Spanner-saken.

Sakset fra Sosialistisk Arbeideravis 2.7.1996

Sado-masochister (SM) er de siste som fanges av politiets og moralistenes jakt på “avvikere”. Og det er homofil sado-masochisme de vil til livs. England kriminaliserer sm-sex mellom likestilte homofile parter. I 1993 ble en gruppe homser dømt i den såkalte Spanner-saken. Spanner var kodenavnet på en omfattende politiforfølgelse. Heteroseksuelle sadomasochister har blitt frifunnet for aktiviteter som piercing, tatovering og erotisk pisking, mens homser har fått fengselstraff for å ha “skadet samfunnsmoralen”.

Fra moralisme til trakassering

Spanner-dommen ble etterfulgt av trakassering og forfølgelse av lesbiske og homofile fetisj- og SM-foreninger. I januar i år gikk politiet løs på grupper som har anka Spannersaken inn for menneskerettsdomstolen i Strasbourg. På samme måte som norske homser og lesber møtte motstand på 50-tallet skremmer politiet klubbeiere fra å leie ut lokaler til dem, og hindrer dermed vanlig møtefrihet. Statlig undertrykking og trakassering av homser, lesber og SMere fører til at homofobien og seksualfiendtligheten ellers i samfunnet styrkes. Tre av ti unge som tar livet av seg er homofile.

Sex-politi

Mange organisasjoner i Norge har uttrykt sin støtte til de Spannerdømte, og det er samla inn 20 000 kroner til dem. Men Kvinnegruppa Ottar har stilt seg på politiets og moralistenes side. Ottar beskylder sado-masochister for vold og undertrykking. De skrev i et innlegg i Klassekampen at de ikke klarer å ta stilling til Spanner-dommen, men er for etterforskning av mulige overgrep! Ottar påstår også at homofile skader sin egen sak ved å forsvare SMere!

Sosialister og andre som vil kjempe for frigjøring må være klart imot at staten, eller andre skal grafse i eller kontrollere folks privatliv. Om saken tapes i Strasbourg vil det bety at politiet i hele Europa får enda friere tøyler til fortsatt trakassering og terror av dem de måtte anse som seksuelle avvikere. Støtte kan sendes til Verkstedet Smia, pb 6838 St. Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo.

 


English
text


This Norwegian article was written in the bulletin of “Sosialistisk Arbeideravis”, representing the political group “International Socialists”.

The Spanner campain in Norway
From 1993 to 1997 Smia-Oslo campaigned and set about fund-raising (picture) in favour of the defendants in the British Spanner Case, which started in Manchester 1987. As part of an international campain, Smia gained support from several dozen Norwegian political organisations with many hundreds of thousands of members from both the political left and right, including women‘s rights groups and trade unions, not to mention the unanimous backing of the Lesbian and Gay movement. 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.

About the Spanner process
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 defendants (picture), 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 Law Commission: SM is legal!
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).

Categories
English Norsk Seksualpolitikk Sexual politics

Antifascistisk aksjon: Homofile kriminaliseres


Hundre år etter rettsaken mot Oscar Wilde har England som eneste land i Europa kriminalisert sikker, ansvarlig og samtykkende sm-sex mellom homofile likestilte parter. Heteroseksuelle sadomasochister er frifunnet for tilsvarende aktiviteter.

Sakset fra Antifascistisk Magasin nr 10 1996

Blitz, AFA og Jentegruppa på Blitz støtter Spannerofrene

I kjølvannet av spannerdommen fra 1993 har politiet trappet opp trakassering og forfølgelse av lesbiske og homofile. I slutten av januar 1996 gikk sex-politiet løs på grupper som har anket spannersaken inn for menneskerettighetsdomstolen i Strasbourg. Politikerne i England mener at homofili er en trussel mot “det engelske samfunnets moral”, mens de selv stadig vekk blir tatt med buksa nede. Det har blitt vedtatt lover i England som forbyr å promotere homofili. Disse lovene kriminaliserer homofile, og fører i praksis til at folk blir arrestert for å kysse kjæresten sin på åpen gate.

Spannerdommene

Listen over organisasjoner som støtter de engelske spannerdømte viser at saken ikke bare handler om å renvaske noen hundre homofile sadomasochister som har fatt sine liv ødelagt etter års mareritt. Uavhengig av seksuell orientering eller preferanse dreier spannersaken seg om vår alles rett til å bestemme over egne liv, retten til å definere vår kjærlighet på egne premisser, retten til egen kropp og seksualitet og retten til å være forskjellig. Dette er krav som lesbe-, homo- og kvinnebevegelsen har kjempet for i alle tider.

Den heteroseksuelle Wilson-dommen fra februar i år avslører dessuten at det engelske samfunnets moral bare er “truet” av homoseksuelle, og da særlig av dem som i tillegg er sadomasochister. Heteroseksuelle som praktiserer sm ble frifunnet av engelsk appellrett. I likhet med Spanner-homo-dommen fra 1993 ikke bare deltok fru Wilson frivillig, men tok også selv initiativ til de aktuelle aktivitetene. Allikevel ble heterofile Wilsons frikjent for straff, mens Spannerhomsene ble dømt da deres samtykke ble ansett som uvesentlig og irrelevant.

Homofobe lover

Erfaringene fra England viser at statlig undertrykking og trakassering overfor lesber, homser og sm-ere følges opp av grov vold og drap. Dette kommer av at de homofobe lovene i England legitimerer angrep på homofile i samfunnet. Latterliggjøring, sjikane, trakassering, sykeliggjøring og nykriminalisering er en trussel mot seksuelle minoriteters liv og helse. Vi vet idag at tre av ti unge som tar livet av seg er homofile og lesbiske. Ut fra egne erfaringer er det grunn til å anta at andelen sm-homser og lesber er enda større. Engelske minoriteter kjemper nå for sin eksistens både som individer og som gruppe. Dersom ikke menneskerettighetsdomstolen i Strasbourg til høsten bringer England på nivå med resten av Europa, har engelsk sex-politi grønt Iys for intensivert sex-terror, razziaer og trakassering. Dommen som da vil omfatte hele Europa, kan få ringvirkninger som vi helst ikke ønsker å tenke på også i vårt eget land.

SLM Oslo og Verkstedet Smia har sendt 20.000 kr til Spanner Trust i London. Målet er å samle inn ytterligere 20.000 kr før Spannersaken kommer til doms i Strasbourg høsten 1996. Totalt trengs det 300.000 kr for å lose spanner-saken gjennom den europeiske menneskerettighetsdomstolen.

 

 

English
text


This Norwegian article was written in the bulletin of “Antifascistisk Magasin”, representing the political groups Blitz, AFA and Blitz women group.

The Spanner campain in Norway
From 1993 to 1997 Smia-Oslo campaigned and set about fund-raising (picture) in favour of the defendants in the British Spanner Case, which started in Manchester 1987. As part of an international campain, Smia gained support from several dozen Norwegian political organisations with many hundreds of thousands of members from both the political left and right, including women‘s rights groups and trade unions, not to mention the unanimous backing of the Lesbian and Gay movement. 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.

About the Spanner process
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 defendants (picture), 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 Law Commission: SM is legal!
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).

Categories
English Sexual politics

Workshops during Europride Manchester + London


“How to remove SM and Fetish diagnoses”

Workshop Manchester
Sunday, August 24th at 1pm
Malmaison Hotel, Piccadilly (Gore St), (the mezzanine lounge)

Workshop Manchester (women only)
Sunday, August 24th at 2pm
The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, 15 Pritchard Street (off Charles Street)

Workshop London
Thursday, August 28th 7pm-9pm
Central Station, 37 Wharfdale Road, Kings Cross, (main bar)

You can also read the introduction to the workshop online at www.reviseF65.org/workshop.html

  • The stigma attached to SM and Fetish diagnoses is used to justify violence, harassment and persecution because of people‘s SM-preference.
  • SM people lose their jobs and the custody of their children because their love and lifestyle is still considered as a disease.
  • Even law court verdicts acquit self-identified murderers and rapists because the victims are stigmatized as sick perverts.

Fetishism, transvestism and sadomasochism are still considered mental illnesses by The World Health Organization and most countries, despite the fact that US psychiatrists revised their DSM manual nine years ago, and Denmark, as the first European country, totally removed the SM diagnosis in 1995.

Join the ReviseF65 efforts to remove diagnoses from the International Classification of Diseases!

The ReviseF65 project is established with a mandate from the 1998 Convention of the Norwegian National Association for Lesbian and Gay Liberation (LLH). Our efforts is so far supported by the Norwegian Association of Gay and Lesbian Physicians, the Norwegian Society for Clinical Sexology, the 1999 European Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and the 2000 General Assembly of the European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (ECMC).

The ReviseF65 group consists of Leather/SM/Fetish men and women representing organizations of Leather and SM gays, lesbians, bi- and heterosexuals, as well as professionals in sexology, psychology and psychiatry.

Join the mailing list: to be informed and have your voice heard, join the e-mail discussion group at www.revisef65.org/moderator.html.

From Thursday 21st August to Monday 25th August, you can contact Svein Skeid and Eric Barstad at The Rembrandt Hotel, 33 Sackville Street, Manchester, rembrandthotel@aol.com, tel: 0161 236 1311.

From Tuesday 26st August to Sunday 31st August, you can contact us at Blades Hotel, 122 Belgrave Road, Victoria, London, tel 020 7976 5552.


www.reviseF65.org
founded in Norway – serving the world
 

Categories
Other languages Sexual politics

Wie löscht man die Fetisch und SM diagnosen


Beobachte die wichtigen Wechsel und Zusätze der kommenden Workshops und Daten.

Workshop Manchester Sunday August 24th at 1pm Malmaison Hotel, Piccadilly (Gore St), (the mezzanine lounge)

Workshop Manchester (women only) Sunday, August 24th at 2pm The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, 15 Pritchard Street (off Charles Street)

Workshop London Thursday August 28th 7pm-9pm Central Station, 37 Wharfdale Road, Kings Cross, (main bar)

  • SM und Fetisch Diagnosen werden gerechtfertigt mit Brutalität, Hass und Belästigungen als Art der SM Liebhaber
  • SM Liebhaber verlieren ihren Job und das Sorgerecht für ihre Kinder, weil die eine Liebe führen und einen Lebensstil führen, der noch als Krankheit eingestuft wir.
  • Jedes Gericht urteilt entlastend bei selbstgestellten Mördern und Vergewaltigern, wenn die Opfer als kranke Perverse eingestuft wurden.

Fetischismus, Transvetismus und Sadomasochismus ist weiterhin als geistige Krankheit bei der WHO und den meisten Ländern angesehen, eingeschlossen UK, sie mißachten die Tatsache, das US Psychiater ihr DSM Handbuch vor 9 Jahren verändert haben und Dänemark als erstes Europäisches Land die SM Diagnosen 1995 komplett verbannt hat.

Das ReviseF65 Projekt wurde 1998 von Versammlung der norwegischen Vereinigung für Lesben und Schwulen Freiheit gegründet.

Die ReviseF65 Gruppe besteht aus Leather/SM/Fetish Männern und Frauen repräsentiert von Gruppen aus Leder und SM Schwulen und Lesben, bi- und heterosexuellen, sowie von Professionellen aus der Sexualkunde, der Psychologie und der Psychatrie

Beteiligt Euch an der mailing Liste: Um informiert zu sein, damit man EureStimme hört, beteiligt Euch an dere – mail discussionsgruppe unter www.revisef65.org/moderator.html.

Von Dienstag 21st August bis Montag 25th August, kann man Svein Skeid and Eric Barstad bei Rembrandt Hotel, 33 Sackville Street, Manchester, rembrandthotel@aol.com, tel: 0161 236 1311 kontakten.

Von Dienstag 26st August bis Sunday 31st August, kannst Du uns bei Blades Hotel, 122 Belgrave Road, Victoria, London, tel 020 7976 5552 kontakten.

Categories
English Professional work Sexual politics

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

See also: NCSF 2008: Second National Survey of Violence & Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities
NCSF’s Violence and Discrimination Survey 1999.

 

 

(Some more discrimination cases are included under “Discrimination and stigmatization” on the full index page: Site map!)

På norsk
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.

Categories
English Sexual politics

Kink Against Racism

Leather and SM people against nazism

Europride 2002 in Cologne. Photo: Svein Skeid
The European leather/SM movement has a long tradition against rasism and nazism. As early as in 1978 the AGM of ECMC – the gay “European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs” – discussed how to stop Nazi elements from infiltrating their member-clubs.

The ECMC member club MS Panther Köln, in 1993 started “Leder gegen Rechts”, and decorated an “anti-nazi fleet” during the CSD (Christopher Street Day) parade that year.

Illustration right:
The German ECMC-club Rote Erde “Leder Gegen Rechts” 1993.

In 1998 the ECMC AGM, with their 50 european member clubs included an article in their Constitution against “Racist and Nazi attitudes, manifestations and actions, as well as membership in corresponding anti-democratic organizations”.

Fetisch gegen Rechts
More than one million people saw the five km long Europride parade 2002 in Cologne, included the huge anti-nazi-wagon from the big Cologne leather bar “Chairs”.
Picture left, Photo: Svein Skeid.

There was also a “Leder gegen rechts”-booth during the Folsom Europe Street Fair in Berlin in September 2004.

 

HERE IS THE TEXT OF THE 1998 ECMC RESOLUTION:
The ECMC AGM 1998 approves the following resolution:
“Racist and nazi attitudes, manifestations and actions, together with membership in ditto antidemocratic organisations is not consistent with membership in our democratic ECMC-clubs.”

Arguments for the proposal:
“The intention with this proposal is to secure the address lists and membership archives of our member clubs from being misused by antidemocratic elements.
We also carry the above resolution to foster fraternal brotherhood with our foreign cultural individual members and in solidarity with ECMC clubs fighting against nazi violence and for information about the difference between leather and nazi.
Today there is different attempts of building up networks of gay leather nazi organisations in Europe. We see this as a threat against the security of our ECMC-clubs and individual members.
The european leather community has a anti nazi tradition. Already in 1978 the ECMC AGM discussed how to stop nazi elements from infiltrating our member clubs. With the above resolution we want to confirm this anti nazi attitude.”

 

No nazifetish at Gear Fetish.
The gay leather internet community GearFetish.com takes stand against German swastikas and other nazi related symbols (Juni 1, 2005).


People of all colours at Folsom Street Fair Europe in Berlin 2004, picture right. The big street fair also included a “Leder Gegen Rechts”-boot.
Photo: Svein Skeid