NCSF Action Alert

We will be leaving home late Friday afternoon to attend Adventures in Sexuality's Winter Wickedness Event. We've had our event and hotel reservations for a couple of months, and we'll gladly join other members of the "local" BDSM community to celebrate a weekend to be ourselves with one another. These weekend "kink" events are a place where we've always gone as a way to immerse ourselves in "our" culture -- to refresh and renew and really relax in a setting where we do not have to pretend or hide.

This time, however, there's trouble brewing in Paradise. A radical, right-wing, religious group has learned the details of the event, and they are making a fuss with the host hotel, and working hard to stir up the community to oppose our right to gather and enjoy our time with one another. Today, the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom has stepped in to advocate for all of us against this viscious attack. Here are the details and a plea for your help and support:

Support the Holiday Inn - Worthington, OH!
February 4, 2009

Please make a phone call now to support the Holiday Inn Worthington, the host hotel for Adventures In Sexuality's (AIS) Winter Wickedness Event taking place February 6-8th.

The religious extremist group, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, along with a local religious radio station in the Columbus, Ohio, area are running a smear campaign against this pansexual BDSM event. Peter LaBarbara of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality calls the event "a freakish sadomasochistic perversion-fest" and urges people to call the hotel's corporate headquarters to pressure them into canceling "for the sake of decency and public health." Bob Burney, a religious extremist Talk Radio DJ, devoted an entire segment of his show slamming Winter Wickedness and attempting to link the event with non-consensual and criminal activities. He urged his listeners to call and mount a campaign against the hotel. (Tuesday, Part 3 starting at 10 min 42sec: ) Click here to listen.

It will only take a minute for you to help! It doesn't matter where you live or if you're not going to attend this event. Please call the Intercontinental Hotels Group Corporate Customer service line at 800-621-0555, then press option 1, then option 5, and thank them for not discriminating against groups, and for being willing to face minor adversity for the sake of our freedom. You can also call the Holiday Inn Columbus-Worthington today at 614-436-0700 – they'll be very glad to hear a friendly voice to counter the hatred of the religious extremists. Suggested points to make:

1. Thank you for upholding the Fair Accommodations Act and choosing not to discriminate against legal events.

2. Please don't let a small number of religious extremists manipulate you by drumming up fear with their misinformation campaigns.

3. There are over 200 weekend-long BDSM events that take place every year in America – we bring in a lot of revenue in these hard times. We like to stay at hotel chains where we have been welcomed when we're traveling on personal or business travel.

4. Organizers of BDSM events such as Winter Wickedness at The Holiday Inn comply with state and local laws prohibiting public sexual intercourse and other forms of sexual intimacy. Demonstrations, lectures and discussion groups as well as dinners and evening parties compose the variety of offerings to guests, nothing different from any of the other hundreds of conventions hosted by your franchisees on a weekly basis.

5. Thank you for standing strong against hate and ignorance.

Please pass this on to your friends to call now!

swan