Our mission
Decriminalize consensual BDSM behavior in the United States
Because the legal system of each country is distinct, it is necessary to do this on a country-by-country basis, led by people from that country. Although this is a US drive, support, networking and discussion with other countries that already have decriminalized adult consensual behavior or face the same issues of government/legal harassment is encouraged.
There is a group that is forming to create a guide or resource that we can use in our local communities to talk about where we go from here to make sure that laws that protect people from things like battery aren't used against the BDSM/ Kink/ Leather (add any others that are appropriate) communities.
The long term goal to change laws is probably 12-15 years out (think about any civil rights kind of movements). So our goal is get discussion going on at the grassroots level about what does consent mean to us and how do we translate that into a philosophy that is understood by the leather community but can also be used when working with non-leather groups.
We know that other communities, like sex workers, are also dealing with laws that are used against them when in fact they are doing things as consenting adults. This can also be looked at as a "getting the government out of our bedrooms" movement. But for now, we want to get leather people, groups, organizations, cities, states, and regions talking about what this is and what we think are the ways to make this a reality.
Tentatively we are calling this "Decriminalize BDSM" rather than "legalize BDSM" because we would have a much harder time creating laws that protect with our goal being to prevent existing laws from being used against consensual adult activities. What we want from each community is a summary of what they think are the ways this would work best in their community.
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