Earlier this month, over 500 sexuality professionals attended the 46th annual AASECT conference. While the scheduled offerings were far too vast to completely recap on this blog, several of our members who attended the conference were willing to share brief stories of their experience in Monterey.
Russell Stambaugh, PhD, for example, shared the above photo from a BDSM: Social Organizations and Community panel conducted by AASECT's AltSex SIG. Pictured left to right are AASECT Member and Panel Moderator Russell Stambaugh, AltSexSIG Chair; Jim and Montaine, Monterey Stay and Play B&B; AASECT Member Anna Randall, The Alternative Sexual Health Reseach Alliance (TASHRA); Janet Hardy, Greenery Press; AASECT Member Richard Sprott, Community Academic Consortium for Research on Alernative Sexualities(CARAS); AASECT Member and Panel Moderator Neil Cannon; author and Kink Aware Professionals founder Race Bannon, Daedalus Press; and Demitri Moshoyannis, Executive Director, Folsom Street Events.
Stambaugh reports that, on the evening of June 6, from 8 - 10 p.m., and despite stiff competition from a simultaneous screening of the 2014 AASECT Media Award-winning movie Lewd and Lascivious, 115 AASECT Members paid $25 for the BDSM panel, which was a fundraiser for AASEC's general fund. With pledges, just short of $4,500 was raised. Those attending were rewarded with the personal stories of some of the top organizers in the kink community on the West Coast. Such stories included those of the founding of iconic organizations like the Folsom Street Fair, The Kink Aware Professionals list, and The Society of Janus. Attendees also heard stories about the genre of safe, sane, and consensual technique books from publishers Daedalus Press and Greenery Press. Prior to the panel, about 40 members attended a munch and had the chance to learn informally from the panelists.
The success of this fundraising panel is but one example of what was on offer at this year's conference. Isadora Alman, MFT, wrote a piece for the Psychology Today website titled "Tidbits from a Sexuality Conference," in which she gave readers just a small taste of the various workshops and panels she attended. Among the presentations she attended were "Polyamory as a Paradigm for 21st Century Relationships and Families," Chris Fariello, PhD's "Ethical Considerations and Pros and Cons of Keeping Secrets in Couples Therapy," and the above-mentioned screening of Lewd and Lascivious. You can read the full piece here.
Finally, Joan Price shared a recap of her time at Paul Joannides, PsyD's talk "I Wish My Clitoris Was Bigger So My Boyfriend Could Find It."
If you'd like to share your own experiences at this year's conference, please do so in the comments section below!
