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My Fantasy Sex-Positive, Anti-Abuse Program

You can tell from the above list that relevant community efforts have focused on raising internal awareness, consolidating useful information, and educating. If I were to get a grant or something (ha!), I would certainly look for ways to use it on a dedicated pro-sex, anti-abuse initiative, hopefully more expansive than a hotline, and considerably more extensive than a pamphlet. I've never developed this thought too extensively -- I hate to torture myself when I know there's no money for one of my ideas -- but I know I'd want my Dream Anti-Abuse Team to have the following qualities:

* BDSM is obviously my main interest, because that's how I identify the core of my sexuality. But I have a strong interest in destigmatizing all forms of sexual expression practiced by consenting adults. Everyone involved in my initiative would emphasize that people of all genders and sexualities could come for help -- whether straight, gay, lesbian, bi, trans, asexual, BDSM, sex worker, polyamorous, swing, or whatever amazing fetish could conceivably come up.

Ideally, I would personally try to shock the hell out of anyone before I agreed to work with them... because anyone whose face twists up or who gasps at the idea of any kind of consensual weird sex is a person who shouldn't be anywhere near altsexual abuse survivors.

* I'd want destigmatizing alternative sexuality among the mainstream, especially mainstream anti-abuse organizations, to be a major focus -- so that abuse survivors could feel less anxious about being misunderstood while seeking help. So I'd need people who were willing to go out and charismatically shock the abuse officers at police stations, feminist organizations, college campuses, etc. I'd want us to be running everything from anti-stigma poster campaigns to sex communication workshops.

* I'd want the program to be well-advertised to the general public, so that people who aren't in the community -- yet who are practicing S&M or poly or whatever on their own -- could still find us.

* Of course we'd also do the more traditional work of offering walk-in counseling to abuse survivors, including help making a concrete plan, altsexual-friendly legal advice, and so on.

So.

Anyone willing to fund my Dream Team?

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This can be found on the Internet at:

http://clarissethorn.com/blog/2011/01/16/the-alt-sex-anti-abuse-dream-team/

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