The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) invites you to a community meeting on Thursday December 6th to announce the launch of our federal lawsuit. NCSF and Barbara Nitke are challenging the Internet obscenity law established under the Communications Decency Act. You may have thought the CDA was eliminated in 1997, but the Supreme Court upheld part of the statute prohibiting sexually frank material on the Internet.

Come learn how the NCSF lawsuit will impact our local community. Support our own Barbara Nitke as she helps us fight censorship on the federal level. (Check out her website at www.barbaranitke.com). There's plenty of ways you can be involved and informed about the proceedings as we take this case all the way to the Supreme Court!

You'll also get updated on an important and critical case in NYC that could impact on all of our consensual SM-leather-fetish activities, including educational and social events.

New York City Community Meeting - December 6th, 2001
6-8pm at The Center, 208 West 13th Street, between 7th and Greenwich Avenues.
For more information contact: Susanw@ncsfreedom.org

Proving that there's a first time for everything, Paddles owner/manager Michael led his first TES workshop this past Saturday from the comfort of his well-known club. Although he claims he has never led a presentation like this before, Michael did an exemplary job hosting the event. Michael began the evening by sharing from his own experiences in the scene, including the eighteen year history of Paddles. From early recollections of Catholic school to the incredible story of doing a scene with a real-life nun, Michael had his audience enthralled with amazing stories that had a hint of familiarity to all involved. Next, Michael presented his opinions of the physical and psychological aspects of spanking, with the assistance of a lovely submissive known as "Daddy's Little Girl." Michael stressed the importance of physical contact between participants in a spanking scene, as opposed to other scenes such as flogging or whipping where tops need space from their bottoms. There was also a brief debate on the exhibitionist factors involved with regard to playing in a public space. Next on the program came a show-and-tell presentation of the wide array of implements available in the scene, ranging from the $4 wooden hairbrush found in drugstores to the antique razor strops which are becoming more rare in today's market.

After a short break, the audience was invited to participate in a presentation of role-playing scenarios. Among those presented: a reform school principal dealt with a girl caught smoking, a husband addressed his wife's credit card habits, a mistress expressed her displeasure over the care of her home, and a state trooper found an innovative way of prosecuting speeders in his jurisdiction. Participants and spectators alike were highly entertained by the creativity involved. Michael concluded the presentation with a question and answer session from the audience, covering topics of fidelity in the scene and "celebrity wish lists," which prompted the comment from Michael, "I never really give it much thought, because I'll pretty much spank anything that has an ass." For a first time effort, Michael definitely earned commendation from his audience for a very smooth presentation.

The 11/27 presentation on transgender transformation was enlightening, entertaining and well-attended. Her Majesty the Queen started with the usual announcements concerning future calendar events and Lolita made a plea for donations to our annual toy drive coordinated by Purple Passion's Hilton.

Then the presenters Miss Veronica Vera and Mariette Pathy Allen were introduced. Miss Vera went first, and discussed her Finishing School for boys who want to be girls. Along with her book on transformation, Miss Vera’s school includes classes in how to walk in high heels, make-up, body sculpting, posing, as well as voice and sensuality classes. She then discussed one of her star pupils, Cameron a/k/a Gail, who always wanted to be a bride. She related a heartwarming and very entertaining story about how Gail prepared for and celebrated her wedding to Hank, a masseur who awakened Gail's sensual feminine side. She arranged for Father Micale (hope I spelled that correctly), sort of a kinky Father Guido Sarducci, to perform the ceremony, which had a female-to-male (F2M) transgender guy who was a birth lesbian named Stacy as the best man and a couple of drag queens recruited by Miss Vera from the CDI (CrossDressers Inc.) support group as bridesmaids. The drag queens had to be instructed not to upstage the blushing bride! Candida Royale caught the bouquet, and Gail had all her fantasies fulfilled, including a night of passion with her groom! She even got to flaunt her ring and her gorgeous nails for an unsuspecting stranger! During the photo shoot, which was done in a public park, little kids were cheering for Gail! Miss Vera also discussed the Imperial Court, a drag group whose motto is "Do good and look Fabulous" and pointed out that sexual identification is a LOT more complicated than most people think it is!

Then she introduced Mariette Pathy Allen, her school's Dean of Photography, who had a wonderful slide show. First Mariette took the audience back on a historical perspective of transgenderism, starting in 1978. She discussed Lee Grant’s film "What sex am I?" made in 1984, and showed many amusing slides including a gaggle of drag queens posing in Provincetown during its annual Fantasy week when drag queens take over the town. One amusing shot had the queens in front of a bas-relief of the founding fathers of the country. She called it "The mothers of invention meet the founding fathers"!

Mariette showed many interesting pictures including a "Gone with the Wind" party where birth females dressed up as Rhett Butler and birth boys dressed up as Scarlett O'Hara. She pointed out that F2M and M2F transgender folks had kept totally separate until the mid '90s but are now uniting. She showed a picture at a "True Spirit" convention of a reverse couple and their 16-year old daughter (sporting a spiked collar) and another of a dad and a son who each had no idea the other was cross-dressing until they met at a convention. After a bunch of really hot erotic slides of transgendered people, Mariette discussed the political activism of the transgender movement. She discussed demonstrations protesting the murder in 1993 of Brandon Teena, as well as the troubles of Matthew Pinckney, a high school kid who was beaten up by his classmates for displaying crossdressing tendencies. Poor Matthew was expelled from high school despite the fact that he was victimized by bullies who weren't punished at all by the principal, who ignorantly claimed that Matthew, who didn't hurt anyone, was the troublemaker, not the bullies who perpetrated violence (wish I was his lawyer, he'd be rich) She concluded with slides about Amanda Milan, who was tragically beaten to death in front of Penn Station in NYC as cabbies cheered, and about Wigstock, which showed how gays and transgendered people are uniting again.

It was an entertaining and thought-provoking evening, and showed not only how far the transgender movement has come, but also how far it has to go to gain general acceptance, and made us all conscious of the importance of political activism in reducing hate crimes and promoting equal treatment for all regardless of gender identification.