I was given the opportunity to look around the Lifestyle Lounge a few weeks ago. It’s a place where swingers and potential swingers can meet and chat, even hook up for a meeting if they want. You get the opportunity to interact in a non-judgemental environment and are able to identify, amongst other things, where your fellow members are from and what they are in to. So for example if you’re in St Paul and want to chat, meet and play with St Paul Swingers then it’s easy.

I originally joined up, told the site my preferences via the sign-up wizard screens and then didn’t find time over Christmas to log back in and investigate the features available.

Well, now I have and there is lots to see. You have your own private mail system, the usual sort of thing. It allows you to send and receive messages from other members and therefore carry on conversations on a one to one basis if you want to. This is great if you want to contact someone outside of the forums.

The forums are just as you’d expect a place for discussion and discourse about swinging. There’s an advice section that is of course always of great use to anyone new to a scene like swinging.

When it comes down to personal contact you can view a user’s profile. This can include information about them and their sexual preferences and how they like to swing. Remember one swinger is not like another. Everyone has their own preferences and when there are more than two people involved everyone’s needs and desires have to be compatible, though not identical. One of the nice features of the profile pages is that alongside the usual biog stuff there’s a link to MapQuest that allows you to see where the profile’s owner lives. This is an extremely useful feature if you’re not quite sure where abouts in the world a particular swinger or couple live. There’s no point arranging a hookup in Gnome Alaska when you really wanted to get together with St Paul swingers in Minnesota.

It’s been an interesting experience, moving around in the Lifestyle lounge and if for example you’re looking for like minded St Paul Swingers or swingers in any other area for that matter it’s a great way to do it. In an area like St Paul with a population of 287,000 you’re bound to find open minded adults wanting to swing with you.

I love it when someone in the public eye does something that seems so out of their professional character that you start to question how much your really know about them.  Especially when they do something saucy.  Lol

Recently Jane Hill one of the BBC’s most prolific news correspondents revealed herself to be gay and took us all by storm, not that there is a problem with being with being gay.  You just didn’t expect her to come out.

And in today’s news Tomasz Schaffenacker has posed for the front cover of Attitude magazine which serves the gay community, although they claim that it features both gay and straight people.  He joined the BBC in 2000 and became the youngest weatherman at the age of 22.

I must say that Tomasz will never been viewed in the same way again when he appears on our screens to present the weather.  He has obviously hidden those pecs well and now he’s creating some warm fronts of his own. 

This now opens up the question “Is Tomasz gay?” or can we ladies still believe we are in with a  chance? The magazine is obviously teasing us all with the hookline “BBC weatherman reveals his stunning secret”.

I’m going to have to take a sneaky peek at a copy next time in WH Smiths.

“Social Network Launches TV and Radio”

“Boyzone is one of the fastest growing social networks for gay and bisexual men launched its free to air Television and Radio station this month giving members yet another reason to join the site.  TheBoyZone.com, launched in September 2009, now has in excess of 10,000 users from across the World, making it one of the ONLY free social network sites aimed specifically at gay and bisexual men.

In association with TVPolari, the leading gay broadcasting platform, TheBoyZone.com wanted to bring a fresh approach to the rather ‘old hat’ idea that gay sites should be pay sites.  The Radio and TV station has been launched to attract advertisers that wish to target gay and bisexual men and already the company is in talks with several well known brands.

“We wanted to offer a 100% free site to all our users and bring them some great additional services.” said Danny Lee, founder and Director of TheBoyZone.com.  “With members from over 140 Countries, and growing faster than we could ever have predicted, we are very proud of what we have achieved so far”.

A major breakthrough for TheBoyZone Radio and TV is that it is available via the new set top box straight onto a conventional Television in the same way as Freeview.  “We have the potential to be in half a million homes within the next 12 months which is great for our advertisers” said Danny Lee.”

Barack Obama

In a move that will be welcomed by the gay community in the US President Barack Obama has pledged to remove the ban on gay men and women serving in the US military.

The current policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” where gay personnel have to hide their sexuality is looking increasingly out of place in a modern army by excluding a large minority who have valuable skills to offer their country, simply on the basis of their sexuality.

Obama stated “We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country,” Mr Obama said. We should be celebrating their willingness to step forward and show such courage.”

What might make his words sound less powerful is that he has yet to commit to a timetable for the changes to legislation. Even less palatable to gay rights campaigners is his reluctance to directly assert himself in efforts to change the law regarding gay marriage/partnerships and how state government choose to interpret and enforce the current Defence of Marriage Act.

In another blow to wider acceptance of non-heterosexual sexualities a demonstration by gay rights activists was broken up in Moscow in the run up to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Admittedly the demonstration had been banned. But why? Demonstrations against the gay rights protesters by “Nationalist” and religious groups were allowed to go ahead. It’s a worrying development both for Russia in particular and for the cause of tolerance across the world.

Mutsugoto

Keeping a relationship going over a long distance has always been and issue. Telephones helped and now email, SMS and video chat means you have moreways than ever to keep the flame alive.

Then something completely new comes along Mutsugoto. 

Described as “Body Drawing Technology” it claims to deliver a whole new way in which lovers can express their emotions when miles apart. More subtle than dildonics and infinitely more expressive IMHO. You can see the system in action at the Edinburgh Arts Festival starting 5 August 2009.

According to Distance Labs “Human intimacy is a significant but often neglected part of modern life. More people now than ever carry on long distance relationships with romantic partners, sometimes for extended periods of time.” Further information about the project can be found here. 

You can become a tester for the system by contact Distance Labs via their contacts page.

Mutsugoto from Distance Lab on Vimeo.

Submissive Guide

Luna, the creator of SubmissiveGuide.com has been an active member of the online adult blogging community for as long as we can remember. She has been a full time submissive since 2004 and because of this has a deep understanding of her own journey into submission and an insight into the path of others from the vanilla to D/s.

The design of the site is clean and easy to read. It has a magazine style feel which makes it friendly and presents the rapidly growing list of articles in a clear and accessible way.

If you’re interested in submission out of curiosity or feel that you may want to submit The Submissive Guide already has a wealth of information for you to read and references to external sources.

So where does all this information come from, Luna’s answer to that question was characteristically self-effacing “I do not intend to provide all the articles myself because I do not know everything and I would prefer to have experienced submissives write about things they know. As the site matures I will be asking for guest bloggers to donate articles to the Guide.”

Luna has a great deal of enthusiasm for the site, one of the reasons we can see it developing far beyond its current form. As she says “After the site matures and I have a decent following I will grow to my next step which is mentorship on a one on one basis about specific activities for a consultant fee. My grand intention is to create certification programs and training classes online as a weekly newsletter, with activities and exercises that they will need to turn into me to get credit. I will be a mentor to whomever wants to join one of the email-driven classes.”

One of the reasons for Luna’s vigour when it comes to developing and mentoring others venturing into a submissive lifestyle may be what she says about her own journey “Because of the knowledge of all the other submissives and Dominants that are online I have been able to develop my own opinions and open mind about a variety of subjects. Master has cultured my desire to learn a lot of different things, including different protocols and developing rituals. My blog has aided me in learning more about myself and has been a jumping off point for more growth.”

Finally I put it to Luna that sites seem to take on a life of their own as they develop and asked her how she saw The Submissive Guide developing through 2009. “Well it really depends on how much work I put into the content, if I can get advertisers, development of the consultant part of the site and then ultimately the online newsletter classes. I think 2009 will be about writing what I know, getting guest bloggers to write about what they know and also getting my name on other sites so that they can learn about my site.”

This is going to be a site to watch. Luna’s genuine insight and passion for the subject matter has to be a winning combination and we’d suggest that anyone who wants to contribute get in touch using the contact form here or the email address on it.

Watch out for people wearing purple tomorrow. They may just be a little kinky.

Following last January’s National Fetish Day the International Fetish Day aims to promote awareness of the fetish community itself and in so far as the UK is concerned the soon to be enacted legislation that makes possession of images deemed as “extreme” a criminal offence.

Here at A-Rouse we love to promote safe, sane and consenting sexual practises so give our wholehearted support to the day. Not that our endorsement means anything you understand but every voice that encourages and supports a person’s freedom to express themselves in a way that does not adversely impact on others helps prevent us slipping down a slippery slope to total censorship.

You can find out more about International Fetish Day and it’s associated issues on Wikipedia and from the Consenting Adult Action Network. If you want to read up on news about the new UK legislation you’d do worse than read the information available at backlash-uk.org.

This of course leads to a bit of a dilemma for all you kinky people out there. If you see someone in the street wearing purple, do you give them a knowing look or a crafty wink? If their as kinky as you they’ll know it. But if they don’t know about International Fetish day be prepared for some strange looks.

 … Many people in Swindon seem to think it is.

According to the Swindon Advertiser there has been “[an] Illegal porn explosion in Swindon”

What this amounts to is that a Chinese illegal immigrant Zhong Chen has recently been charged with selling unclassified and therefore highly illegal pornographic DVDs around the construction sites and industrial estates of the round about capital of England.

The titles apparently include some activities that would simply not see the light of day if they were to enter the UK via legal channels as they would be refused a certification by the BBFC. Specifically one of the titles included sexual acts with a dog.

The reason that there is such an appetite for DVDs sold in such an obviously illegal manner is that Swindon council will not grant licences for its local sex shops to sell R18 titles. Total prohibition of something does not mean that the public will lose its appetite for it and by denying legal access means that as in the Swindon case a black market will develop.

Draconian control of erotica and pornography has never worked and always forces the trade underground. A policy of “No R18 in Swindon” may make anti-porn groups happy but surely even the most naïve opponent of adult must realise that the Internet provides an alternate source of material that is accessible from anywhere – and much of what`s available there isn`t properly regulated either. Or if you really want a physical DVD to play you could just take a trip up the road to the first town with a council who aren`t as self-delusional as Swindon`s.

Adult shops in the town are reporting that sales are already slowing and with the retail sector in general taking a hit because of the world situation this can only get worse. The local head of commercial regulation believes that Zhong was a just part of a larger, organised pirating operation. As a small part of a larger criminal gang he`ll soon be replaced, while law-abiding retailers could close because of falling profits caused by the council`s policy.

So should be relax regulation on adult material?

In conclusion I`d have to say no, there isn`t too much regulation when it comes to porn.

However as in every area where bureaucracy impacts on the individual, if a person`s freedom of choice is compromised there are those who will work outside the system to get what they want or make a quick buck. Within a regulatory framework we have control and can ensure that what is available covers all but the most extreme of tastes while ensuring that it is not exploitative of those who produce/appear in it. Nobody in their right mind wants minors to have access to porn either, but that`s exactly what can happen if you make the only source of porn an unscrupulous criminal element.

While rummaging around last night I found this site. It`s a section of the GMFA site which is a charity specialising in the health of gay men.

The “How Risky Is” section is really great. Well written, informative, but not prescriptive or full of impenetrable jargon. It tells you what you need to know about various sexual activities and how to ensure that you play safe.

I`m really taken by the site, it`s bright, informative and user-friendly. In addition to the sex and sexual health advice you`ll find information about the gay scene and various groups from clubs to those that aim to look after your physical and spiritual well being.

Remember, the site is a charity so if you can, please help them with a small donation.

Tags: sexual health, GMFA, HIV, AIDS