Towards an Inclusive Community

So we as a community have some work to do. Up until recently the outside world’s attention on BDSM through film, television and published literature generally focused on white and heterosexual couples. This, and other power imbalances, resulted in a local scene that is very white cis-het orientated. This also downplayed the contributions of those from BIPOC and queer communities to the development of the community and led to them often feeling unsafe in these spaces.

So while gender-nonconforming individuals and BIPOC have been a part of the BDSM community from its inception, they are often treated poorly in public spaces and generally made to feel unsafe. It is now essential we make sure our spaces are inclusive to these wonderful people so they can benefit from being a part of the queer community.

The first shift here was for cis women and submissives to become a larger focus; a result of the feminist movement. This shift was well underway by my time with Sagacity in 2009-2012 and had begun much earlier. This was the shift towards safety and moving away from a masculine top and feminine bottom being the “one true way” to play.

The second shift I saw started in the late early 2010s when the scene began to shift to try to be more inclusive. Some progress was made with including gender-nonconforming individuals and the first steps towards making it an inclusive space for visible minorities and people of colour.

Now it’s time for the third shift. BIPOC still face massive issues of being fetishized for their race. Gender-nonconforming people are still frequently misgendered and fetishized. There are still prominent members of the local community known for their TERF and other exclusionary views that continue to make these spaces unsafe for everyone..

Until we do the work to understand these issues and work on making our local scene’s subculture more inclusive we will continue to run into these issues and alienate these fantastic people. People who could be adding a wealth of knowledge and their own experience to our collective knowledge. This is an opportunity and a call for all of us to make a safer, more inclusive space for us all to enjoy.

NIK is also currently working on some resources to help raise awareness around these issues and we will keep our members posted when they are ready. We would love to hear feedback from our members, especially from our BIPOC and gender-nonconforming members. The more feedback we get, the better we can develop our programs.

Thank you all for reading this and helping to make our community a safer place for everyone,

ChwiirLeader