Metro Vancouver Kink newsletter

August 2008

Introduction

Annual General Meeting

"This is how we do it at MVK!"

MVK announces its second annual general meeting, which includes our year in review, a question and answer session with the incumbent board, and the election for the new board. This is your chance to meet MVK's leadership, learn what we've been doing for the past year and what we want to do in the future, make your voice heard and help chose the future leaders of your organization.

To run for election, you must have a voting membership, available the day of the election, and a valid nomination form. Self-nomination is allowed. Your nomination must be seconded by another person with a voting membership. Both you and the person who nominated you must be present at the election for your candidacy to be valid. You may apply for a named board position (President, Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer) or one of the Director at Large positions. In the event you are nominated for a named position but are not elected to the position, you may opt to be placed on the ballot for a Director at Large position. Nominations can be filed via email after September 18th, 2008, during the afternoon session on October 4th or at the beginning of the AGM in the evening.

There will be two rounds of voting.

The first is for the named board positions: President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.  Election will be by secret ballots. In the event there is only one candidate for a named position, that candidate will win by acclamation.

The second round is for Directors at Large, to a maximum of 5. In the event there are no more than 5 candidates, those candidates will win by acclamation.

Voting membership costs $5.00. A voting member may cast one proxy vote for a person who is not present by purchasing a proxy voting membership ($5.00) with a properly signed form.

Time: October 4th, 2008 2:00pm-4:00pm Nominations and orientation with the incumbent board. 7:00pm doors open 7:30pm-9:30pm Annual General Meeting. Followed by October play party.

Location: Capri Hall, 3925 Fraser Street, Vancouver BC

See www.metrovancouverkink.com/agm for more details, or email contact+agm@metrovancouverkink.com

August Party

August 2nd: Vancouver Dungeon workshop and play party

MVK presents Vancouver Dungeon workshop and play party on August 2nd, 2008. Featuring the Red Light Room and the Cuddle Puddle!

Location: Capri Hall (wheelchair accessible)

3925 Fraser Street @ E.24th, Vancouver, BC

For Facebook users, install the Facebook Carpooling application from http://www.zimride.com/. You will be able to arrange rides with other attendees, once you have the event in your list.

Transit:

#8 and #25 buses will bring you there. After the regular buses stop, N8 still runs!

Please check Translink for details

The last scheduled bus, at the nearest timing points are:

8 Northbound: 1.07am

N8 Northbound: 2.48am (every 30min)

8 Southbound: 2.00am

N8 Southbound: 3.33am (every 30min)

Pride 2008

MVK's contingent will march in the Vancouver Pride Parade on August 3rd. Look out for our bondage van and our taiko drummers. MVK will also have a booth at the Sunset Beach Pride festival, in partnership with VASM (Vancouver Activists in S/M). Drop by and say hello!

Volunteers for the marching contingent are still welcome. Email contact+pride@metrovancouverkink.com

Slick

MVK's first queer, kinky, co-ed bath house night of wet and steamy sensuality. Two floors of steam, showers, private rooms, cruising space, dungeon space and more.

Where S&M meets steam and metal

Tuesday, August 26, 7PM-1AM

At Friction 123 W. Pender near Abbott, Vancouver, BC

See metrovancouverkink.com/slick for details!

Admission:

• Locker $12
• Small room $12
• Standard room $14
• Regular with double bed $27
• VIP room $47

Upgrades allowed.

Meetings

In the interest of transparency, MVK's board meetings are open to the public. If you want to speak your mind, please attend. Our meetings are posted on our web site's front page and our calendar

Munches

The BDSM community has traditionally held casual dinner gatherings for people interested in BDSM to socialize in a low-key manner. Come out and meet the community. All open-minded people welcome.

Vancouver West Munch:

Location: Boston Pizza, 190-1333 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC.

Time: 6:30PM - 8:30PM, August 6th and the first Wednesday of each month.

Vancouver East Munch:

Location: The End Cafe, 2360 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC.

Time: 6:30PM - 8:30PM, August 20th and the third Wednesday of every month.

News

Max Hardcore convicted

Paul Little, aka porn performer and produce Max Hardcore, was convicted of 10 federal counts of distributing obscene materials over the Internet and through the mail.

Link

Libertine club in Las Vegas forced to Close

A judge ordered a club that caters to Las Vegas' fetish community to close its doors Monday because it doesn't have the proper licenses to operate. The district attorney's office filed a lawsuit against the club in April claiming that it lacked a business license and was operating as an illegal sex club. County attorneys also argued in court documents that the club's patrons "are encouraged to engage in dangerous sexual practices."

Link

BC Human Rights Tribunal allowed to investigate BDSM

The BC Court of Appeals has allowed the BC Human Rights Tribunal to investigate the Peter Hayes case against the Vancouver Police Department.

Link

Max Mosley wins against tabloid for taping BDSM session

Auto racing official Max Mosley has won his court case against the News of the World for breach of privacy. The tabloid arranged for Mosley session at a house of professional domination to be videotaped and falsely claimed that the "orgy" had a Nazi theme, possibly fabricated in light of Mosley's father, Sir Oswald Mosley, was a British fascist leader.

Link

Editorial

Why Pride Matters

Homosexuality, as we know it today, is a relatively new idea, only about 130 years old, formalized by the early sexologists like Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis and Hirschfeld. Before the 1880s, there were homosexual acts, or acts of sodomy or perversion, but these were seen as the result of the environment of seduction, drunkeness, economic necessity, hereditary taint or moral corruption. The idea of a homosexual person, an expression of a fixed personal trait regardless of external influences, was a new way of looking at human sexuality.

The homosexual and the kinkster are, if not siblings, at least cousins, born from the legal and medical discourses of the late nineteenth century. Krafft-Ebing saw the homosexual and the masochist as manifestation of the same problem, that of female behaviour in men. The distinction between homosexuals, kinksters and transgender people is generally lost on our enemies: conservative groups love to distribute images of leatherfolk or transpeople at public events to horrify people at how perverse gays are.

Today, kinky people, as well as transgender and poly people, face much the same struggle as gays and lesbians have been facing for decades: the legal struggles against censorship, commercial discrimination against our gatherings, employment discrimination, ignorance and prejudice from the helping professions and legal authorities, even violence. That will be the challenge of the 21st century, and that struggle needs the numbers and experience and legal precedents of gay and lesbian activists and organizers.

That's why MVK is part of Vancouver Pride, in both the parade and the festival. It shows the alliance of people who believe in a broader, deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

If you need another reason for why Pride matters, our late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau famously said that, "We take the position that there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." That's fine, but what about outside the bedroom? If you want to take your sexuality to the bath house or the play party or the swinger party, you can run into trouble from people who would rather that your existence beout of sight, out of mind. Pride is an opportunity to get way, way, way out of the bedroom and show your face and body to hundreds of thousands of eyes, not to mention cameras. That makes a statement. That tells the world that you are not invisible, that you are not to be ignored.

Masthead

Editor: Peter Tupper, president and communications coordinator. Contributions by other MVK Board Members. Published monthly by Metro Vancouver Kink Society.

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