The Power of Social Networking For Multi-Racial Polyamorous Families

Airial Clark graduated from UC Berkeley in 2007 with a double major BA in English Literature and Anthropology while raising two young sons as a single parent. At Cal, she was the President of the Student Parent Association and gave the Anthropology Undergraduate Commencement speech. Airial is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts Degree in Sexuality Studies, with an expected graduation of May 2012, at San Francisco State University where she is researching the intersection of race, parenting and consensual non-monogamy. She is also a contributing writer for Good Vibrations Magazine, the Sex Positive Photo Project of the SF Bay Area, and Shades Magazine. She also authors a personal blog, Shiny Sparkly Reality.

Debunking Anal Fisting Myths

Mr. Allan is well-known in the Bay Area leather community from his work with both Alameda County Leather Corps and the Handball Academy. He has been in a stable poly relationship with his husband since 2003, when they became legally married in Vancouver, BC.

Writing Group Sex: Erotica for Three or More

Allison Moon is the author of the lesbian werewolf novel Lunatic Fringe and she is currently working on the sequel. In addition to writing, she enjoys teaching adults how to publish their own books, have great sex, and publish books about great sex. Learn more about all of these fabulous things at TalesofthePack.com.

Sex, Shame, and Love

Charlie Glickman is a sexuality educator, occasional university professor, blogger, and writer. He teaches workshops and classes on lots of different sexual topics, including sex-positivity, sex & shame, relationships, many different sexual practices and techniques, and communities of erotic affiliation. You can find his blog at www.charlieglickman.com or follow him on twitter at @charlieglickman and on facebook.

Sex with Benefits: Progressive Swinging

Cooper S. Beckett's life isn't like other people's. When he's not writing or podcasting at Life on the Swingset, he's living it up with his wife Marilyn as evangelical swingers, spreading the good word that "sharing is caring." He truly believes that a good many people would be open to exploring the fringe of human sexuality, knocking down the borders between orientations, and experiencing great sex, that most basic of human rights, if only they were told it's okay to do so. He has resolved to change the world, even if it's only one couple at a time.

How Not to Be a Douche (on FetLife and other sexy sites)

Cunning Minx is the sultry-voiced, tireless producer and host of the award-winning Polyamory Weekly podcast since 2005, now with over 300 episodes in production. A kinky boobiesexual, Minx founded the show as a resource for the poly and poly-curious to form a community, share experiences and help guide each other on their journeys of poly exploration. And hopefully, also guide each other away from common relationship land mines--or at least share sympathy when they step on one!

Poly Weekly is the winner of the 2007 Erotic Award for Best Podcast and has received accolades from the likes of ErosZine, Fleshbot and the Chicago Sun-Times, and Minx has spoken on poly, kinky, and Web 2.0 community-building topics at the Heartland Polyamory Conference, Leather Leadership Conference, Dragon*Con, Galleria Domain 2, Sex 2.0, New York's Poly Pride Day, MomentumCon, ShibariCon, and Poly Living.

Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Cognitive Differences (For those who love AND think ‘outside the box’!)

A strong advocate for relationship diversity, Dawn Davidson has been polyamorous her entire adult life, has been in relationship with ADHD and Aspie people for most of that time… and has recently acquired her own ADD diagnosis (which explains so much!) Dawn is a nationally recognized speaker/expert on polyamory, writes for Loving More® magazine, and is serializing her first book on her own blog. Dawn particularly likes working with counseling clients who are beginning their journey to designing their own best relationships, whether polyamorous, or some other form of “Love Outside The Box.”

Pansexual Poly Sluts in Leather

Dossie Easton, a long time player on the San Francisco S/M scene and well-known killer bottom, is co-author with Janet Hardy of The Ethical Slut, The New Bottoming Book and The New Topping Book, When Someone You Love Is Kinky, a book designed to give to outsiders to inform them about our lifestyle, and Radical Ecstasy: SM Journeys to Transcendence. The second edition of The Ethical Slut was released in April of 2009, bigger and better and all round sluttier.

Dossie is a licensed psychotherapist working with individuals, couples and more in her private practice, and currently offers the excellent skills and experience of three therapy interns. She is particularly interested in how SM journeys into Shadow can bring old wounds into the healing light of erotic consciousness.

An active sex radical since 1961, Dossie was a member of the first Board of Directors of the Society of Janus in San Francisco in 1974. In the eighties under the name of Hidebound Leatherware, she had a business crafting whips and restraints. Currently she makes her home in the mountains north of San Francisco, travels around to teach at conferences all over the world, and spends her nonexistent free time hiking the hills declaiming filthy poetry to the vultures and hosting outrageous pajama parties.

Sex With Benefits: Progressive Swinging

Dylan Thomas is a different kind of evangelist. Dylan sees the need for an evolution in how people communicate and how people perceive each other. By learning that love and emotion are unlimited resources, people can take responsibility for themselves, their emotions, their actions and learn to enjoy and appreciate the wealth of diversity in lifestyles and sexuality everywhere. As a co-host on Life on the Swingset, Dylan has relayed his own journey: wading through the barren lands of homophobia and male chauvinism and progressing into yearning for bi-sexuality, creating communities around swinging, learning about growing new relationships through polyamory, and being willing to expose his own failings, fears, and triumphs along the way.

2nd Generation Poly: It Runs In The Family

Evoë Thorne is the co-founder and CEO of WholeSexLife.com. She has five beautiful, brilliant children and is in love with two very different but equally wonderful men. Evoë is kinky with a passion for all things bondage and CBT – approaching sex with the curiosity and dedication of a scientist and the creativity and spontaneity of an artist. She is truly a sensualist and can enjoy a meal almost as much as sex. She lives in Seattle, has a bad habit of blogging her sex life, and she wants to change the world.

Photo Perspectives

Pervert. Heretic. Artist. Author. Forbidden Light makes it his mission to mix all things with sex and fetish. With the belief that "sex is a microcosm of The Universe", he tests his theories by exploring the many intersections that cross sexuality with the rest of our lives. In his blog, "Journals of an Intelsexual", he severely over-analyzes the basic and attempts to summarize the grandiose. Kink. Spirit. Headaches. Is there any more to life?

Sex with Benefits: Progressive Swinging

As an oversexed, omnisexual castaway from the sexually-repressed culture, Ginger believes the next sexual revolution of total sex-positivity is just around the corner and it’s time for the revolutionaries to unite! As one of the members of Life on the Swingset, she strives to help people expand their way of thinking and discover their true sexy potential.

Atheism and Sexuality

Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and more. She is author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, currently available on Kindle and other ebook formats, and scheduled for print publication later this month. She is editor of the Best Erotic Comics anthology series, and of Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of Best American Erotica. She writes regularly for AlterNet and blogs at Greta Christina's Blog in the Freethought Blogs network.

Honing Non-Judgmental Communication Through Touch and Movement

Grotesque Human is a filthy kinky poly traveler, musician, artist and blogger residing in the SF Bay Area. With a degree in Dance/Theatre from a college of freaks, she loves to choreograph, light herself on fire, and write feminist/anti-feminist plays involving as many diverse bodily fluids as possible. One of her fetishes is “intelligence: watching others wear.” To find out the others, check out her blog, Seduce and Confuse, where she writes about travel, polyamory, kink, and sexuality.

2nd Generation Poly: It Runs In The Family

Harold Henry came of age sexually in the late ‘60s when the mainstream model of non-monogamy was swinging and “wife-swapping” and the counter-culture dreamed of “free love.” Since then he has experienced long term open marriage and a variety of non-monogamous relationships. Currently, Harold has two primary relationships, one of 20 years and one of 5 years. His 2 grown sons and 3-year-old daughter make him enormously proud. Harold is the CTO and co-founder of www.wholesexlife.com and is the creative force behind www.sexissacred.org.

So Many Honeys, So Little Money

Heina is a twenty-something, somewhat-recent graduate of a fine University of California institution with a B.A. in English and another in Philosophy. She self-identifies mostly as a nerd but also as a polyamorous, kinky, queer, pansexual feminist; the first is hardly unrelated to the rest. She is on the writing team at Skepchick.org and her writing will be featured in the upcoming anthology Perverts of Color.

Keynote Address

Kink, Race, and Class

Trans-Queering Your Sex

Ignacio Rivera aka Papí Coxxx identifies as a trans identified, queer, gender-fluid, polyamorous, kinky, Black-Boricua. Ignacio, who prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” is a lecturer, activist, sex worker, sex educator, and performance artist, sharing spoken word, one-person shows, and storytelling internationally. Ignacio’s body of work has focused on gender and sexuality: specifically on queer, trans, kink and sexual liberation issues within a race/class dynamic. Ignacio is the founder of Poly Patao Productions and one of the founding board members of Queers for Economic Justice.

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

Invisibleank is an immigrant from South Asia. At the moment, she is a wannabe poly activist. She is drawing and blogging at www.invisbleank.com. In the past, she has worked for the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center in San Francisco as a media person where she wrote this article. She has also volunteered as hotline counselor for Bay Area Women Against Rape.

Massage for You and You... and You Too!

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

This kinky, body positivity activist, polyamorous, pan sexual, geeky gamer gurl, and pagan has been a Certified Massage Therapist for the past five years and has loved every moment of it. Irene believes that touch has the power to transcend, heal and transform.

Massage for You and You... and You Too!

Over the past nine years, I have been practicing massage therapy and enjoying every moment of it. Whether giving massages for relaxation, stress relief, pain reduction or injury management, I’m very honored and thankful for all those wonderful souls whom I can offer help to. It is their gratitude and smiles which make every day that much more beautiful, and it is their thanks and appreciation which will keep me massaging for many years to come!

Opening Safely: Negotiating a Middle Ground

Shannyn and James live together in Marin County and have been primary partners for a year and a half. They've been exploring polyamory from the beginning of their relationship and attend poly events all over the bay area. They are regulars at the Marin/North Bay Open Relationship Discussion Group. Shannyn is in nursing school and James is a prehistoric archaeologist. They enjoy swing dancing, period costuming, burning man events and exploring the bay area's music and art scenes.

Balancing Poly Parenting

Jay Glass (in his day job) is a researcher and project leader with scientific and technical publications in AI/robotics, impact crater geophysics, and space systems. He is the parent of three boys (ages 15, 18, and 22) who have been raised in an open household environment. He resides with them, his legal wife, his partner, and two cats together in the Bay Area (in an 1100 sqft house). Jay has led past poly-parenting panel discussions over the past eight years at alt.polycons, Poly Living West, and other venues.

Sex Work and Non-Monogamy

Jaye W. is a queer, trans/genderqueer, and non-monogamous sex worker of three years. A recent recipient of an M.A. in sexuality studies, Jaye is a member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project and serves on the WhoreSpeak speakers' panel. In addition to advocating for sex workers' rights, Jaye can often be found snapping photos or diligently dismantling the gender binary.

Sex Work and Non-Monogamy

Jesse James has a background in social justice education, punk rock, and promiscuity. He moved to San Francisco with the hope he would one day have the opportunity to date a girl who worked at the Lusty Lady. Luckily, he met Siouxsie Q and they fell in crazy stupid awesome love. Jesse now spends most of his time hanging out in dungeons, being a sex worker ally and activist, and making porn. In his opinion, he is living the dream.

A Practical Primer for Picking Poly-friendly Professionals

Joe Zarate-Sanderlin is a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern supervised by Dossie Easton, MFT. He draws on nearly 20 years of experience in alternative lifestyle communities and offers specific expertise in communication, polyamory, and open relationships. He works with individuals, couples, and groups who need help negotiating boundaries in relationships in addition to helping people with depression, anxiety, and other challenges they face. His interests include Jungian psychology, rites of passage, Internal Family Systems, and sand tray play therapy for adults. He lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

Poly Theory: Making Meaning and Re-making Culture Through Networked Romantic Relationships

Joy Brooke Fairfield is a PhD student in Drama at Stanford University and has undergraduate and master's degrees in Performance Studies from Harvard and NYU respectively. She researches intimacy and spectatorship and has presented at academic conferences on sex-positive cultural practices like Cuddle Parties™ and the amateur porn festival HUMP™. She has an article published in Transgressive Tales: Reading Queer and Trans in Traditional Fairytales and was a co-host of the sex-positive talk show “SexLife Live.”

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

Juana Tango was born in Mexico with a picket sign in her hand and put to bed by social justice songs rather than scary lullabies about enferma muñecas or falling cradles & babies. In early adulthood she armed her spare hand with a vibrator and began a journey of self discovery. Further explorations led her into size activism, sexual freedoms, and a continued crusade of social justice. Juana Tango’s definition of ecstasy is merging her activist heart with sapiosexuality.

Non-Monogamy Without Sex: Making Sense of Chosen Family, Non-Sexual Partnerships, and Romantic Friendships

Julianne Carroll is a San Francisco based sex and relationship educator and sex positive filmmaker. She earned her MA in Human Sexuality at San Francisco State University, and made a documentary about sex workers in San Francisco for her Masters thesis. Her goal is to advocate for sexual diversity and cultural change via media and social justice documentary film. Julianne has been practicing non-monogamy and non-traditional relationships for several years, and loves her chosen family!

Sex Work and Non-Monogamy

Kalash is a Washington DC native who has been living/breathing in San Francisco for close to four years, who has a varied sex worker background including GFE, pro-dom, queer pornstar, and erotic modeling, and who has been in multiple monogamous relationships with partners who were also sex workers. Kalash is currently an enthusiastic Certified Massage Therapist and creator of collective Syn BodyWork. Syn BodyWork provides services to erotic service providers and the alternative sex community and is dedicated to helping others obtain their optimum physical and emotional balance through therapeutic bodywork.

Navigating Nonmonogamous BDSM Relationships

Unmasking the Green-Eyed Monster: Managing Jealousy in Open Relationships

Kathy Labriola is a nurse, counselor, and hypnotherapist in private practice in Berkeley, California. Her first book, Love in Abundance: A Counselor’s Advice on Open Relationships, was recently published by Greenery Press. She has been a card-carrying bisexual and polyamorist for nearly 40 years. She is political activist and community organizer, rides a bike, lives in a housing cooperative, and raises chickens and organic vegetables in her back yard.

Pickup Arts for Sweethearts

Bred, born, and raised in the San Francisco bay area, she has worked behind the scenes for many SF venues and enjoys talking to strangers. Her contributions include godswap, a friendly conversation/story swap about each person’s journey with their god(s). She is currently working on "Pickup Arts for Sweethearts".

Safe/Ward: Combating Abuse in BDSM/Altsex Communities

Kitty Stryker is a consent culture warrior, queer geek, and feminist sex worker with one boot in London, UK and one in San Francisco, California. She's an Erotic Award winner, the founder of Ladies High Tea and Pornography Society, an international workshop presenter, a sex klown, and a queer femme Daddy. Kitty blogs about her professional and personal experiences at Purrversatility.

Good Vibrations Toy Workshop and Store Tour

Laurie Winters has been a sexual health educator for over ten years. With a commitment to inspiring and empowering the community she teaches workshops throughout the Bay Area at Universities and nonprofit organizations. Through Good Vibrations she blogs and brings joy selling products to the people. She sings the praises of self love and pleasure!

2nd Generation Poly: It Runs In The Family

Maggie Mayhem is an Oakland based sex hacker, writer, performer, and activist. Her strange and sordid tale has taken her from a post as the HIV Senior Specialist at Larkin Street Youth Services, to Tanzania, and to the world of sex work and pornography. She blogs at MissMaggieMayhem.com.

Photo by Shilo McCabe.

Non-Monogamy Without Sex: Making Sense of Chosen Family, Non-Sexual Partnerships, and Romantic Friendships

Marcia Baczynski is a relationship coach who specializes in working with individuals and couples exploring open relationships. She’s the co-creator of Cuddle Party, a faculty member of Kink Academy and Passionate U, and a national presenter on such topics as communication and negotiation, polyamory and open relationships, boundaries, uncovering desires, jealousy, and creating extraordinary relationships of all kinds. Marcia has worked with thousands of people to improve their communication and relationships, and makes frequent appearances in the media, including People, Newsweek, Montel Williams, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has been polyamorous since sometime in the late 20th century. You can find Marcia online at askingforwhatyouwant.com and successfulnonmonogamy.com and follow her on Twitter @ibmarcia.

Beautiful Struggle: Open Hearts Project

As spoken word poet and student of acupuncture, Mark-Anthony Johnson's dedication to the healing arts is grounded in challenging, healing from, and visioning past white supremacist, capitalist, heteronormative patriarchal ways of being. As a member of the Open Hearts Project, Mark-Anthony explores these intersections with a heart set on non-monogamous and polyamorous practices as catalyst for community recovery from historical trauma. For him, non-monogamy and polyamory build the capacity to wage intimacy as a liberating anti-colonial force for QTPOC communities.

Balancing Poly Parenting

Mary Beth has been actively polyamorous for 15 years, through the good and bad situations. She is the co-mother to five kids aged 6-20. She has worked as a teacher in many settings since 2001 and is now homeschooling her younger three children. She has spent a lot of time figuring how out to create a loving environment for the kids while balancing the needs and desire of three poly adults.

Balancing Poly Parenting

Michael Huff by day works in San Francisco in the healthcare sector, involved in health disparities. By night and at other times, Michael leads a full life with a young child and thriving marriage. He finds time enough for love, kink, and laughter. Michael searches for the middle path towards creating a world where everyone wins through creative scheduling, flexibility, and grace.

Photo Perspectives

I have always believed that the arts allow us to reflect on ourselves, enable us to respond to the human condition, increase our ability to be imaginatively engaged with life, and bring beauty and meaning into our existence. I conceive of my creative endeavors as healing objects and rituals that reflect this expression and once born go on to have a life all their own. For close to twenty years it has been my pleasure to work as an artist, educator and healer working in schools, community organizations, nursing homes and hospitals. I am the Studio Manager for ArtReach Studios in Daly City. ArtReach provides a unique arts academy environment where adults with developmental disabilities can pursue art as a means of personal expression, develop new skills, connect to a larger art community and realize financial gains through sales of their work.

Erotic Breathwork for Deeper Intimacy

M'kali-Hashiki is a Black, Polysexual Femme Kinkster living in the Bay Area. She is also Sacred Intimate; a Certified Massage Therapist; a Certified Sexological Bodyworker; and a Certified Sound, Voice, and Music Healing practitioner with approximately 700 hours of training in various modalities. She has a private practice focusing on Erotic Wellness using soundwork, bodywork, and somatic sex re/education. She also facilitates workshops for corporations and non-profits using Conscious Breathwork, Rhythm Circles, and Theatre Games to increase organizational trust and unity.

2nd Generation Poly: It Runs In The Family

Ned Mayhem is a queer scientist and pornographer who splits his time between quantum physics research and on camera sex acts. Ned created the software that runs Meet The Mayhems, a couples porn site featuring Ned and his partner Maggie Mayhem at Meet The Mayhems.Com. Ned is now working to make this software available to other performers and sex workers interested in any manner of online media or product sales. Ned and Maggie also run the PSIgasm Project, an open source independent science project creating devices to measure arousal and orgasm in the body directly.

Photo by Shilo McCabe.

Balancing Poly Parenting

Rachel has been polyamorous since 2004, and manages her relationships while raising four children ages 3-11. Two of Rachel's kids have special needs, and she has one foster child. She has a strong background in early childhood education, and is very involved in community parenting with other local poly families. Rachel and her husband of 12 years have recently separated and have figured out how to co-parent and remain friends, as well as supporting one another while dating other people.

Negotiating Successful Threesomes

Sex and relationship expert Reid Mihalko of www.ReidAboutSex.com has been a featured speaker at dozens of conferences on relationships and sexuality and is a sought-after presenter and teacher at colleges and sex positive stores across the country. From his rated-PG/PG-13 workshops (Cuddle Party, Speed-Flirting) to the rated-R (Iron Slut Sex Educator Showdown) to his explicit, NC-17 rated, Show-N-Tell sex education workshops (where audiences get to watch, take notes, and ask questions), Reid's workshops have been attended by close to 30,000 individuals from myriad walks of life, orientations, relationship styles, countries and religions. Known for his charisma, wit and emphasis on integrity, Reid travels the country teaching, coaching, consulting and collaborating on fulfilling his mission: Create more self-esteem, self-confidence and sexual health for adults in and out of the bedroom.

Beautiful Struggle: Open Hearts Project

Rey/Reina Fukuda Salinas, singer/songwriter/queer/trans, grew up in a bi-national/racial home, under a "hetero-nuclear family" model. Their worldview, and the world’s view of them, has been shaped by a life of moving to different cities and countries. They were invited to become part of "Beautiful Struggle" (The Open Hearts Project), led by Patrisse Cullors-Brignac, in efforts to create space to process and find ways to counter-act the white capitalist practices of material privilege/oppression, co-dependency, jealousy, isolation, and a constant state of deficiency (addiction, insatiability). As a Los Angeles resident and community organizer they do anti-gentrification work on the East side.

Creative Loving, Healing, & Intention: Poly Expressive Arts Therapy

Richard Wright received his Masters in Expressive Arts Therapy, and is the founder of POLY/POC OAKLAND. He strongly believes in creating community for People Of Color and reducing shame around sexualities. He is also a dj, blogger, visual artist and facilitator of cuddle parties.

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

Growing up in Bengal, India in a conservative Hindu family, privileged in some ways and marginalized in many, Roke Noir has now lived over 20 years in USA as an open queer, sex positive, woman of color immigrant. Her journey from being just another foreign engineering student to a leader in the Bay Area Queer Women Artist Activist community is one of conflicts, contradictions and miracles. Currently the Artistic Director of SirenTheatre.org which focuses on the reality, dreams and legacies of women around the globe, Roke Noir is working on "Delicacies of Disturbances", a community process theatre production, in collaboration with 30 women, addressing mental health issues for women. A sexual being with hidden mental disabilities, Roke identifies as a lover, visionary, and a catalyst impacting social change, as she breaks and questions all boundaries. Roke believes strongly in the human spirit as indomitable, indestructible, endlessly evolving, and capable of not only overcoming challenges but achieving miracles. Her life's purpose is to help people be who they already are - their highest selves. A poet at heart with eyes for dangerous beauty, Roke craves to to live raw, wrapped in rapture. She welcomes you to follow her work at Facebook.com/rokenoir.

Sex Work and Non-Monogamy

Sandy Bottoms, a Bay Area native, self-defines as a polyamorous queer femme. Dancing at the Lusty Lady theater for 3 years, dabbling in local porn, and independently escorting, Sandy is a well-rounded sex worker. She is a historian and activist, currently working with the local chapter of SWOP, hosting SF’s Under 40 Poly Café Social, and blogging about her unique intersectional experiences at msbottomsup.blogspot.com.

Opening Safely: Negotiating a Middle Ground

Shannyn and James live together in Marin County and have been primary partners for a year and a half. They've been exploring polyamory from the beginning of their relationship and attend poly events all over the bay area. They are regulars at the Marin/North Bay Open Relationship Discussion Group. Shannyn is in nursing school and James is a prehistoric archaeologist. They enjoy swing dancing, period costuming, burning man events and exploring the bay area's music and art scenes.

Who's the Boss: Power Playfulness in the Bedroom

Shay is known for teaching classes that are entertaining (she’s been called "better than a Vegas act") and also packed with useful and applicable information. Often with Stefanos, she hosts events and teaches classes several times a month in SF Bay Area and beyond. She lives in a large household that includes the other members of her polyamorous quad and her two kids. Shay is an ER nurse by day, and spends a lot of her free time as a compulsive volunteer within the leather community. She identifies as a pansexual polyamorist playslut. She has performed, presented, and hosted events at many venues around the country, including the SF Citadel, Dark Odyssey, Mission Control, Northwest Leather Celebration, KinkAcademy.com, Behind Closed Doors, SF Swinger Convention, and in a number of documentaries across the world. You can read more about her and her partner Stefanos on her web site, www.StefanosandChey.com.

Sex with Benefits: Progressive Swinging

Shira B. Katz is the host of Pedestrian Polyamory, a podcast, and Pedestrian Polyamory - Live!, a SiriusXM Playboy radio show, that delves into polyamory from a practical, logical point of view. Shira also cohosts the Life on the Swingset podcast, a podcast about ethical nonmonogamy, where she brings a pansexual and polyamorous point of view to a show full of progressive swingers. When not writing articles, podcasting, or otherwise extolling the virtues of polyamory, Shira can be found in the streets of San Francisco getting crushes on nerds and advocating for a sexier tomorrow.

Mono With Non-Mono: Worth the Trouble?

Silvano’s professional life has spanned areas of Biophysics, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Systems Engineering. He has been interested in human potential through movement, dance, voice, performing arts, dream work and hypnotherapy. He lived in two monogamous marriages and is a father. He was involved in some open relationships before his marriages and has self-identified as poly for the past ten years while exploring several areas of non-monogamy. At the same time he continues to be often involved with women who profess to be monogamous.

Sex Work and Non-Monogamy

Siouxsie Q is so happy she decided to get her B.A. in Theatre, because she now makes more money than most of her graduating class and she uses her degree every single day. Siouxsie is sex worker, activist, and performer living in San Francisco. She is an employee and part owner of the Lusty Lady Theatre--the only unionized worker-owned peep show on the planet. She currently serves on the Board of Directors. She is active in the BDSM community and has also been seen making porn for Crash Pad, Beautiful Agony, and Kink.com. In her opinion, she is living the dream.

Cultivating Healthy Boundaries

Sonya Brewer is a body-centered psychotherapist in Albany, CA, where she specializes in helping individuals, couples, families and groups nurture and explore the ways that the body supports our innate capacities for healing, growth and transformation. Her commitment is to support people in feeling more alive, connected and authentic in their lives and relationships. Sonya facilitates workshops about embodied living, sexuality and polyamory, and appears in the film “Hearts Cracked Open: Tantra for Women Who Love Women” by Betsy Kalin. She brings a wide breadth of experience including somatic and relational psychology, trauma recovery, bodywork, dance, and mindfulness meditation. She and her life partner have been living polyamorously for over ten of their fourteen years together. Registered MFT Intern #61996. Supervised by Margie Cohen, LCSW License # LCS11263.

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

Stacy Reed is a board member for the NIA Collective. She co-facilitates the East Bay woman-identified butch group Bulldaggers and is actively involved with the East Bay Women's Poly Group. Stacy has been a practicing polyamorist for twelve years. She currently has a partner and a girlfriend and she actively strives to make poly life better understood.

Who's the Boss: Power Playfulness in the Bedroom

Stefanos is known for teaching classes that are entertaining (he’s been called "better than a Vegas act") and also packed with useful and applicable information. Often with Shay, he hosts events and teaches classes several times a month in SF Bay Area and beyond. He lives in a large household that includes the other members of his polyamorous quad and his two kids. His professional life is as the Steward of The Upper Floor on Kink.com and as DM and manager of Bondage-a-Go-Go. He is a compulsive volunteer within the leather community, and identifies as a pansexual polyamorist playslut. He has performed, presented, and hosted events at many venues around the country, including the SF Citadel, Dark Odyssey, Mission Control, Northwest Leather Celebration, KinkAcademy.com, Behind Closed Doors, SF Swinger Convention, and in a number of documentaries across the world. You can read more about him and his partner Shay on his web site, www.StefanosandChey.com.

Organizing and Hosting Play Parties

Tenacious Snail is a queer, feminist polyamorous pervert. She is a former sex educator and former Christian minister. She has presented at NGLTF’s Creating Change, National Gay and Lesbian Health Conference, and Metropolitan Community Church General Conference. She loves facilitating joy, enabling smiles and listening to people have happy sex. She organized her first sex party for her birthday, and eagerly said Yes to more parties when the dungeon owners said it was the best private party they’d ever seen.

Keynote Address

Partnering With Power: Kink and D/s Open Relationships

Tristan Taormino^® is an award-winning author, columnist, sex educator, speaker, activist, and feminist pornographer. She is the author of seven books including Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, Secrets of Great G-Spot Orgasms and Female Ejaculation, and The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women. Tristan conducted original research and extensive interviews of people in non-monogamous relationships for her book Opening Up, which was published in 2008. She has presented her research, lectured about non-monogamy, and taught workshops on open relationships at colleges and universities, conferences, and other venues all over North America. She also created the website OpeningUp.net, which features books, organizations, and resources on non-monogamy including The Open List. You can find out more about Tristan at tristantaormino.com and puckerup.com.

Fat Sluts, Hungry Virgins

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

Virgie Tovar holds an MA in Human Sexuality and is the author of Destination DD: Adventures of a Breast Fetishist with 40DDs and the upcoming anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion (Seal Press, Nov 2012). Virgie explores the intersections of fat positivity and sexuality through activism, blogging, and vlogging. Find her on Good Vibrations Magazine, YouTube and her website.

Radical Love for Beginners: Guidelines for Responsible Open Relationships

Radical love warrior, Wendy-O Matik, author of Redefining Our Relationships: Guidelines for Responsible Open Relationships, is leading the love revolution with her book and her Radical Love & Relationship Workshops. As an educator and spokesperson for the polyamory community, Wendy has become a revolutionary activist of the heart. She has taught over a hundred open relationship workshops internationally, helping to reshape the future of alternative relationship models for the 21st century. As an activist for social change, Wendy is pushing the boundaries on firmly rooted notions in mainstream society on relationships, love, gender, sexual equality, and sexual politics.

The Intimacy of Sacred Kink

Poly "isms": Addressing Multiple Marginalizations in Non-Monogamous and Kink Community

As a year-old transplant to the Bay Area, Xochiquetzal (or Lina, or any other name you may know her by) comes with a background in working with sex, ordeal, kink, spirit, and all the beautiful ways that these methods and themes can come together. As the person behind sacredprofanity.com, she brings these ideas to mind and offers us all the opportunity to become that sacred thing we all can be, by doing the most profane of acts: being.

Photo by Savage Arts for The Naked Desert, 2008.

Keynote Address

Kink, Race, and Class

Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino of African Descent (Panamanian) female to male transsexual who has been a social justice activist since he was 13 years old. A health educator, speaker, writer, performer, trainer, facilitator, and spiritual hugger, Yoseñio is a member of the National Advisory Board for the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health. He also serves on the Community Advisory Board for the All Gender Health Online Study, sponsored by the Program in Human Sexuality of the University of Minnesota. Yoseñio is on the faculty for the Sexuality Track of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference. He is also a frequent speaker at the medical schools of the University of California at San Francisco and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.