I will say upfront that I’m biased for this profile. Joe’s Barbershop, owned by my good friend Joe Gallagher, is where I get my hair cut (as few hairs as I have left). With that said, I think my impressions are similar to most of the customers who frequent this wonderful establishment. As a testament […]

BDSM and related kink have endured a bad rap for a long time. Some of this is due to those rare individuals who engage in improper or dangerous behavior and call it BDSM. But most of the bad reputation stems from ignorance. In an effort to eradicate this ignorance, both among the public at large […]

Check out the Speeches tab on this site for information on the Sacramento Valley Heat event I’ll be delivering the opening address for on Friday, August 28, 2009. The title of my brief speech is Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Playroom. I hope to see many of my Sacramento and Bay […]

Ask the Man Who Owns Him: The real lives of gay Masters and slave By david stein with David Schachter Published by Perfectbound Press There have been many books and articles written about master/slave relationships. The fascination with this form of dominance and submission is obvious and writers of varying capabilities have tackled its subject […]

Question I’m new to the SM scene and I keep hearing the term “negotiation.” What does this term refer to? ~ Bill, New York Answer To have a satisfactory SM scene most people believe a certain amount of “negotiation” is needed. What this refers to is the process by which each player lets the other […]

Question I’m fairly new to the leather world and I’m enjoying my explorations quite a bit. But I find the rigidity that some leathermen have about roles to be disturbing. I’m versatile and enjoy all kinds of roles at different times (master, slave, daddy, boy, mutual, and so on). Do most leathermen really stick with […]

Many years ago I, along with others, undertook The DSM Project to provide sound and factual input to the body of professionals that write and revise the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (often referred to in psychotherapeutic circles as simply the DSM). Our mission was to counteract the classifying […]