The Importance of Gender-Affirming Care for Closing the Gap on LGBTQ+ Health Disparities

By Elly Belle In doctor’s offices across America, medical professionals often provide care based on the assumption that patients are cisgender and heterosexual. But LGBTQ+ patients—especially those who are trans, gender non-conforming, or nonbinary deserve better, and experts say improvements will only come when LGBTQ+ and gender-affirming health care becomes commonplace. This type of care—which …

The BDSM Test Is the Get-To-Know-Your-Kink Diagnostic

By Kells McPhillips BDSM is a tidy acronym for a broad range of sexual preferences that relate to physical control, usually broken into six components, “bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism,” according to Ali Hebert and Angela Weaver, professors in the department of psychology at St. Francis Xavier University, writing in …

Queer lessons for straight couples

Book shows how heterosexuals can learn from LGBT people to have better relationships By Holly Ober The tragedy of heterosexuality isn’t that men are heterosexual. It’s that they’re not heterosexual enough. That’s according to UC Riverside professor of gender and sexuality studies Jane Ward, whose new book, “The Tragedy of Heterosexuality,” examines marriage manuals, self-help …

What You Need to Know About Being a BDSM Switch

It’s like a lil bit of dominant + a lil bit of submissive. By Rachel Varina BDSM stands for bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism. This is where the whole dominant (sometimes called a “top”) and submissive (a “bottom”) dynamic comes into play. “A top is simply someone who leads/guides the …

A Beginner’s Guide to Spanking Therapy

by Gabrielle Kassel Erotic. Painful. Punitive. These are some of the ways you might describe a good ol’ bum whooping. But therapeutic? Well, that’s the idea behind spanking therapy. Below, two kink educators explain WTH spanking therapy entails and why people are into it. While it always involves bum bumping, what qualifies as spanking therapy …

4 Tips For Proudly Introducing Kink Into Your Relationship

By Mary Grace Garis If during this time in quarantine, you’ve done some sexual exploring about what gets you going—great. Maybe you’ve dedicated some self-care sessions to self-pleasure, had some mind-blowing staycation sex, or taken the BDSM test to explore your NSFW interests. And just maybe, all the sexploration has you wanting to learn how …

Meet the Couple Fighting Porn’s Race Problem

By Sandra Song Whether we’re talking about its reliance on fetishization, the overt pay discrepancies or the fact that it’s always been a predominantly white space, it’s no secret that porn has a race problem. But after 20 years of shared experience as performers, educators and master fetish trainers, Jet-Setting Jasmine and King Noire are …