New Orleans Fetish Event Threatened.
With my heart, lifestyle and vocation being directly associated with BDSM I could not let the last few month’s turn of events go un-noted in my public forum. Fetish in the Fall, New Orleans’ first major fetish education and entertainment convention was cancelled due to local city government writing a letter to local businesses in opposition.
It is sad events like this that lead to the weak public presence of the New Orleans BDSM/fetish scene. Despite places like Bourbon Street, the tourists are shocked about how conservative our local BDSM scene really is.
I was a happy holder of full weekend pass tickets to Fetish In the Fall. This event was to be a great public service to the metropolitan New Orleans scene. There were so many wonderful educational lectures, venders with quality attire and toys, fetish galas to socialize amongst with like minded adults, and play areas to experiment with the new knowledge on safe play gained through the lectures of the day.
I was saddened to find out that this event was cancelled. I had been sitting on my tickets for over a month. I wasn’t upset that the tickets had been purchased…I was saddened because this was the first major event of this kind for New Orleans. The first extensive educational event, not just an event to show off, this was one that also informs.
There are periodic day workshops with local groups like NOBLE that do wonderful lectures of one or two speakers, but this would have been at least 11 workshops in a 3 day period.
Why did this happen?
Well, the Police Chief Congemi stated that his concern was for the local neighborhood’s family values, with the misunderstanding that this was “degrading to women”, and that these events would be “borderline illegal”. As a female and a Dominant in the BDSM lifestyle and even a professional Dominatrix, I can tell you that sex is not a determining factor in who gets degraded, and those who do get degraded really enjoy it. There actually seem to be far more male submissives than female submissives, although they are probably, in all actuality, equal in numbers.
Bob Hannaford also was concerned with the media attending this event and outing people that were in the scene who conduct professional and family lives who might have been upset by the exposure.
The Police Chief did not actively cancel the events himself…what he did was put the heat on hotels and business owners that were scene friendly. The event coordinator, Bob Hannaford lost the support of the hotel that was negotiating this event with him. The Kenner Police threatened to keep a scrutinizing eye on the event, deem acts to be illegal, and charge not only the consenting parties but also the hotels for any “sexual misconducts”. Other hotels were more forced than urged to not accept this event.
One of the points that I would like to make is that this event was to be completely contained with in the private property of one hotel. This means, that the local communities would have had very little interaction with the attendees of the event. They would have benefited by the food sales of the 1,500 expected participants, as well as the needs that the local drug stores would have met. These events were not to be held in neighborhoods, not in public, not on their school grounds, but in a hotel that was not occupied by other than the attendees of the events.
Why was this not held in New Orleans proper? The hotel that was booked for the sister convention of swingers, called Naughty in New Orleans, had been booked to capacity. Originally, we were to share the hotel for both events, but many of the fetish attendees (who probably were already going out of their way for expensive attire, and tickets to the event) were hesitant on the high priced cost of French Quarter lodging. This event would be better accommodated near the hotel for a lesser cost per night, and the hotel they had in mind was bending over backwards to get this account.
Now it has been declared publicly that Kenner has the right to refuse service to “fetishist”, “supposed fetishist”, and others with approval from their local police department and city government. The statement has been made that Kenner does not want “our type of people” in their family oriented city. I have news for you… we are already here. We are your sisters, your mothers, your wives, your husbands, your doctors, your lawyers. We are your neighbors…most of us are discreet due to these prejudices and persecutions against our lifestyles.
As a professional dominant I can tell you that even the spouses of many of us are unaware of our lifestyles. Most of us are very loving and respectable contributing members of society. We just have a taste for indulging our senses in a wider spectrum of sensation, pleasing our eyes with the visions of corsets and high-heeled boots. Most of us are harmless.
If you would like further information on the local scene, or to contact with questions on local events of other BDSM topics, you may contact me at genevieve@msgenevieve.com
Or 504-220-3770
Mistress Genevieve
http://msgenevieve.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mistressgenevievesslaves