March 2006 Newsletter
Greetings from The Sex Party
Sexosopher's Café this Sunday night
A reminder to attend our next Café this Sunday evening (Feb 26th) from 7-8.30pm at the Grind Café 4124 Main Street (at 25th). The subject? Does our society have a sexual double standard? Are sexually adventurous women more stigmatized than men? Come tell us your story, or what you think.
Federal Party Registration
Congratulations to Jessie Wright, Marissa Fischer, and the wonderful band of volunteers who staffed our booth at the sex show at Canada Place in January. And thanks to the 250 new members they recruited! While technically 250 members are sufficient for federal registration, we still seek another 250 to ensure we have more than enough and to give us a broader membership base. If you are interested in joining the federal party, go to this webpage, print the document, complete and sign it, and then mail it to us. Please also include your email address on the back of the page. Membership is free.
Please mail to:
The Sex Party
1204A - 2050 Nelson St.
Vancouver, BC
V6G 1N6
Our Litigation - Update
The Party is fighting two court battles with two sex-negative institutions: the General Manager of the BC Liquor Branch and Canada Post.
We filed the first case in the provincial Supreme Court in May 2005 after the Manager refused to allow our fundraising event anywhere in BC where liquor is served. That includes private premises outside bars, as well as bars. The Manager never claimed our events cause anyone any harm. The prohibition forbids strippers from touching. (BTW - provincial liquor policy does not prohibit entertainers from hitting each other - even drawing blood. But any sexual contact is prohibited.) The Manager applied the prohibition aimed at strippers o our event even though it had nothing to do with stripping. We contend that applying the prohibition to an art installation supervised by a credentialed artist during a fundraising event by a registered political party amounts to an illegal interference in the political process. We are also challenging the bizarre policy that allows violence entertainment, but not erotic entertainment. The case is currently in the BC Court of Appeal on a technical preliminary issue.
Our second case was filed January 12, 2006 in Federal Court and stems from the refusal of Canada Post to deliver our tasteful and informative flyer sent out prior to the federal election. Post Office policy prohibits anything with sexual content. Such policy is a classic example of bureaucratic sex-negativity. The Post Office has never contended that our flyer would cause anyone harm. We contend that the policy itself is harmful and authorizes unconstitutional interference with political expression. We hope that case will come on for hearing in the late spring.
Mainstream Politicians and Sexual Policy
A good example of why The Sex Party is needed in the political life of Canada is illustrated by the response of provincial politicians to the liquor policy discussed above. We wrote to both the Liberal cabinet minister responsible for the policy (Solicitor General John Les) and the NDP critic for that ministry Jagrup Brar. We asked each to support our call for a revision of the policies which prohibit entertainment showing tenderness and intimacy but not violence and pain, and which prohibit lawful political expression. The Solicitor General replied with a short statement that answered none of the specific issues we raised. He indicated he would support no change in this area.
As any sex-positive activist will tell you, very brief replies from cabinet ministers to letters raising important issues of public policy re sex, are the norm. They are just not interested in a serious discussion of the issue. But at least government ministers tend to respond. Consider the NDP reaction to our letter. Jagrup Brar refused to in any way respond. Nothing. That struck us as unbusinesslike. So we wrote the same letter to NDP leader Carol James informing her of the non-reponse of Brar, and asking her to take the helm and indicate the NDP position on the issue. We never heard a peep from her either. We say: more evidence of NDP unprofessionalism.
So neither government nor opposition is willing to dialogue about important sexual issues. That is why we need a Sex Party.