Recently I visited for the first time Wicked Grounds at 289 8th Street in San Francisco. It’s a wonderful kinky café and boutique nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s South of Market area, home to many of San Francisco’s kinky businesses and happenings. Great atmosphere, great drinks, great food, and a really nice staff. […]

Recently I was looking through an old gay men’s magazine and casually glancing at the advertisements. It dawned on me that not so many years ago the only ads I would see in magazines targeted at gay men were directly related to the sexual. Bars and nightclubs. Sex gear and accessories. Clothing. Adult movies. That […]

At this year’s CARAS Alternative Sexualities Conference I was asked by Carol Cordier-Carpenter if I could get the word out that she needs more participants for her Power Exchange Relationship Survey. She is looking for people of all sexual orientations involved in committed power exchange relationships of any form (such as dominant and submissive) to […]

A term I’ve often heard used to describe BDSM and kinky folks, particular kinky gay men, is sexual mavericks. At least I used to hear that term often. Not so much nowadays. One dictionary defines a maverick as “someone who exhibits great independence in thought and action.” Sounds like a great thing doesn’t it? And […]

This past Sunday, August 15th, I was honored to receive a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pantheon of Leather XX ceremony held in Los Angeles. I’d like to thank Dave Rhodes of The Leather Journal, the esteemed selection committee, and everyone who has supported me and my efforts over the years. I’m a very […]

The Sydney Morning Herald just published a great article titled We’re just swingers after all that discusses the positions held in the new book, Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha. Sex At Dawn uses information from anthropology, archeology, anatomy and primatology to put forth the case […]

OK, you probably knew this post was coming. The person who won International Mr. Leather this year is a female-to-male transgender man who uses a wheelchair much of the time. With due respect to Tyler McCormick, the man who won, every report I got from those in attendance was that he did a superb job […]

With the recent announcement by wireless providers of phones capable of two-way video talk, I believe online cruising for dating and sex partners has just taken a giant leap. This changes a lot in my opinion. Today it’s just two phones (that I’m aware of) capable of video chat with the eventual ease of a […]

The men at Leatherati.com asked me to contribute my thoughts about the decision made by the International Mr. Leather organizers to address the barebacking issue through restrictions they placed on their vendor area participants. You can read my opinion along with the opinions of other thoughtful men on the Leatherati.com In-Depth Issues page.

No, this isn’t a post about actually having casual sex with David Ortmann (although perhaps he’d like that). Rather, it’s about his wonderful blogtalk radio show called Casual Sex. Casual Sex is a call-in show hosted by David Ortmann, a San Francisco based psychotherapist, sex therapist and author. As a psychotherapeutic practitioner, his areas of […]