Feeling unispired

I am super excited about all the advances we have made as a culture moving towards embracing racial equality, different expressions of gender, sexual and relationship orientations. Then, I am shocked that an ass like Trump, who is seeming to run on a platform of hate, intolerance and bigotry can be so embraced by such a large percentage of our country's population. It just boggles my mind. It especially boggles my mind that so many people who embrace Trump claim to be Godly people. Really, Trump, Godly?

Excellent Gracie X Interview

Here is an excellent Relationships 2.0 podcast interview by Dr. Michelle Skeen of Gracie X on polyamory and her book Wide Open.

Reference:

http://www.iheart.com/show/27215456?episode_id=27724788

Looking back on Catalyst Con West, 2016

Last weekend my wife Sophia and I went to the 2016 version of Catalyst Con West, in Los Angeles, CA. This was our first Catalyst Con and it was a fantastic conference. We both enjoyed it. Special thanks to Dee Dennis for creating this great event.

The session that most exceeded my expectations was Coming Out Like a Porn Star with Jiz Lee, Joanne Angel, Casey Clavert and JackHammerXXL. I was deeply moved by them reading their stories of coming out, from of the book by Jiz Lee, Coming Out Like a Porn Star. The power of narrative is amazing and this anthology was a great way to humanize sex workers and their experience. I will be recommending this to my friends, especially my vanilla friends.

The slut shaming panel was very good, as was Andre Shakti's session. The session on poly was good as was the ethical porn session as well as Joan Price's session. I didn't learn a lot I didn't already know in Joan's session or the poly session; which is not so surprising as these are in my wheelhouse. Joan is just such a sweet person it's always a pleasure seeing her.

The session I found the most disappointing was the session on female libido and testosterone. This felt like a pharma sales pitch. I was disappointed that I could not be in multiple places at one time. Sometimes I had to choose between two sessions and sometimes, looking back, I felt I made the wrong choice. I wish I had chosen the session I hadn't attended. Especially the session by Dr. Marylou Naccarato; I am kicking myself for not attending her session now. Sophia and I went separately to different sessions this hour and we both missed her session. Marylou is an amazing person. Sophia and I really enjoyed meeting her and Michael Gogin. Omnipresence would have really been helpful at this conference!

A minor critique. The biggest disappointment was the closing plenary. Far too much time was spent moving people into and out of the circle and defining very granular categories regarding attendee demographics. The much more important planning session ended up feeling way too rushed.

I plan to go again. I hope to put together a plan for doing a session at next year's conference, that's how much I liked this event!