Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS)

I have been invited to sit on the Board of the Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS for short) and I have accepted. I consider this a great honor and am humbled by the invitation.

For those unfamiliar with this great organization, CARAS is dedicated to the support and promotion of excellence in the study of alternative sexualities, and the dissemination of research results to the alternative sexuality communities, the public, and the research community.

CARAS was founded in 2005 and is a national-level, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports alternative sexuality research, with a current focus on BDSM/kink/fetish sexualities and consensual non-monogamous relationships such as polyamory. They employ a community-based research model and have assembled a network of academics, clinicians and respected members of the target communities who work directly with researchers to promote scientific and other forms of scholarly research.

It is only through such supported research that we can arrive at solid, verified information about the alternative sexuality and relationship communities. Anecdotal information is good, but such information doesn’t hold up if you need to use the information to understand with certainty a group of people and the common interests and identifications that unite them.

If you believe in such research and have the means to do so, please consider supporting CARAS through a tax-deductible donation. You can easily and quickly donate online at the site’s Donation page. Of course, some folks might prefer to hold a fundraiser or other type of event that promotes donations to CARAS. If so, please contact me by sending me a message from the Contact page on this site and I or someone from CARAS will contact you.

If you have a website on which a link to the CARAS site (http://www.caras.ws/) is suitable, all such links are gratefully welcome.

CARAS does important work that our people need done. I look forward to working with the distinguished individuals associated with this fine organization.