By PROUD & Kinky Magazine Staff

What do you do?

Fetish and leather education fostering radically authentic relationships and communities.

How did you get started?

I realized that my Mormon upbringing and “education” around gender/sex/sexuality/etc. left me completely unprepared to live the life I wanted. I didn’t know how to form meaningful connections with people, how to communicate, or how to explore myself and my identity as a queer person.

It hasn’t been an easy journey. My first foray into “The World” was working for an alcohol vendor in nightclubs. Half of our people had DUIs, and every one of us had been roofied on the job at least once. The environment was toxic. Slimy, unsafe behaviors around consent were commonplace. The experience turned me off to nightclub life almost entirely, and I fully flung myself into the art spaces around Burning Man in 2011. Light kink was usually present, different gender identities & sexualities were more present, and people were more communicative. Markedly happier about consent. It was great, yet I ran into unhealthy jokes others would make around inebriation & consent with new people that didn’t sit well with me.

Photo by @kinky.macrame aka Garret Mc Nair

“Consent is sexy” is true and a cute catchphrase, but more than “sexy,” it’s necessary. Non-consent in any manner is a violation. It is a core value of mine. I needed something else that was true to my personal integrity.

Why kink?

I knew I loved it in general and have stumbled around the country at shibari & leather conventions since the early 2000s. I was looking for more than a basic understanding of safe words and how to use a flogger. In 2016, I found that in my leather family, an education program operating out of Salt Lake, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. I completed our six-month 201 program, “The Journey,” and then our 18-month 301 program, “Leather Quest.” I could finally put my thirst for knowledge and chosen family to good use as a student, instructor, and mentor periodically.

I sit at this time as the Student Advisor and Program Director for our 101 leather program, “Vegas Toolbox.” I’ve been a Student Advisor since 2018. We host free, donation-based classes on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at The Nunnery. I spent too many years feeling around in the dark and seeing people proudly represent the worst sides of what I believe is beautiful. My big hope is that I can shave some time off of other people’s searches. Help them make new mistakes instead of repeating mine and continuing the cycle.

Where can we find you?

Outside of the standard classroom, usually throwing a party or in a dungeon. I run kink tastings regularly through events like Stiletto (goth & industrial night headed up by Night Weapons) and pansexual nights at Hawk’s Gym before its closure. I’m a massive exhibitionist, so I’m easy to spot doing my door-to-door salesman routine with a rolling case of debauchery. You can surprisingly cram a lot of fetish furniture in a hatchback. Keep an eye out on Instagram & Fetlife to find out what idea I’m pushing next.

Anything Else?

My pronouns are It/Its because It is what It is. “Filth are my politics. Filth is my life.” (Divine)

This article was originally published in the second issue of PROUD & Kinky Magazine. You may read it in its original format here.

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