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| Thanks to ColumbiaChronicle.com for this awesome pic! |
This might sound a little weird, but bear with me: this holiday season there are a lot of excellent reasons to spend some money on the sex industry. I have a feeling that a lot of you who read this are interested in promoting sex-positive points of view and like to do your best to promote ethical and excellent sex products. I applaud that, and I think it’s incredibly important to put your money where your junk is when it comes to porn and sex. In a landscape where free porn of the worst kind is everywhere, where it’s so easy to go online and purchase toys and other products from literally anywhere, the holiday season is a good time to make sure that your purchases count toward what you really WANT them to.
Many of us make donations to charities in the names of friends and family for holiday gifts, and even more buy products that support causes we agree with. But one cause that often gets overlooked in the family-friendly season is good sex. But why? Is it really so weird to give a friend an account at your favorite online sex toy purveyor, or a membership to your favorite pay-for-porn site? It’s not as if you’re asking them to use these in front of you, and spreading the word about excellent, ethical, incredibly hot sex industry goods is super-important for those of us who want to support the best of sex. These companies can’t exist without income–help them out!
Here’s a list of companies, causes, and carnal corruption to consider spending some bucks on for your loved ones this year:
- Genderqueer superstar Jiz Lee’s Karma Pervs: “What is Karma Pervs? In a nutshell, I post unique photo sets of images taken by exciting photographers and visual artists. The proceeds are donated to non-profit organizations in my community.” Or of course you can support Jiz directly by purchasing one of their excellent, mind-and-groin-expanding films. If you do either by tomorrow, Dec. 1, you’ll get a gift card from Jiz!
- Help support Madison Young’s vision for Building Our Own White Picket Fences: an art exhibit-turned-movement that celebrates and explores queer families. Forthcoming books and DVDs commemorating the show still need funding!
- Donate to The Red Umbrella Project a sex-worker advocacy group based in New York that uses storytelling in public venues as a platform for building understanding of sex work and sex workers. I’ve attended; it’s fabulous.
- Get your honey a membership to The Crash Pad, Shine Louise Houston’s groundbreaking queer porn series that will leave misconceptions about queerness in the dust, and everybody’s underpants on the floor.
- Or, for those with a penchant for penis, The Heavenly Spire offers a queer look at the glories of masculinity.
- Good Vibrations is a San Francisco-based feminist and LGBTQ-friendly sex mall! Get what you need from them, or donate to their GiVe program: “By donating products, advertising and sponsorship for fundraisers, along with a percentage of retail sales, we’ve provided much needed support for women’s shelters, HIV/AIDS research, art programs, LGBT benefits, breast cancer awareness and much more.”
- Smitten Kitten is your one-stop shop for sex toys, porn, books, and how-tos, with equal variety for men, women, and all other genders. The website features excellent articles from many of my favorite porn peeps including Danny Wylde!
- Subscribe your friends and fuck-buddies to Whore! Magazine, “a quarterly print publication dedicated to celebrating the current and historical qualities of women who have defined a role for themselves outside the status quo.”
- Want something a little hardcore-er? Try Salacious Magazine, a queer feminist sex magazine that just MIGHT be featuring an interview with moi in the next few issues…
- Donate or subscribe to Bitch Magazine, the feminist response to pop culture! No weird sex-issues required for this one, so you can give it to family with no awkwardness… except the inevitable, “Yes I’m a feminist get over it” talk.
- Send a donation in your gift-receivers’ names to Planned Parenthood. Because why would you NOT want to do that?
- Support the Free Speech Coalition, “the trade association of the adult entertainment industry. Our mission is to lead, protect and support the growth of the adult entertainment industry.”
- Purchase from Papaya Toys, the new, no-nonsense, socially-conscious sex toy company winning awards like it’s going out of style… and all of it is pthalate-free!
- Donate to one of love artist and sexecologist Annie Sprinkle’s ongoing, always entertaining, mind-opening, and totally sparkly projects.
Go forth, good sirs, madams, and others… spend thy money in a way that matters!