Incident Reporting & Response - 3rd Quarter 2015 report

By Susan Wright

Director of IRR

NCSF's Incident Reporting & Response received 56 requests for assistance from individuals, groups and businesses in July, August and September. NCSF maintains the confidentiality of those who come to us for help. However we balance that need with the need to report the services we are providing and to provide the community with a record of where the need is the greatest. Here is a breakdown of the cases we dealt with in the third quarter of 2015:

Criminal

    There were 22 requests for resources and information involving kink and criminal law. In a sharp decline, only 3 of those requests came from people complaining about a kink-related assault/sexual assault who needed assistance in connecting with kink-aware victim services, and resources to educate law enforcement, investigators and prosecutors. We got 2 requests for information from witnesses who have been subpoenaed in a criminal trial. Another 3 were requests for referrals for kink aware expert witnesses in a criminal trial. 4 were requests for resources dealing with other kinds of crimes, and 1 involved sexual harassment because the person is kinky. 2 involved incarceration/parole violations. The remaining requests for information regarding criminal laws and kink/nonmonogamy did not involve charges being filed.

Child Custody/Divorce

    There were 12 child custody cases in the last three months. One case involved a Child Protective Services investigation that involved polyamory - in all there were 5 requests for information from poly parents facing child custody challenges. There were 3 requests for information and referrals to kink aware attorneys involving BDSM and child custody, and another 3 involving divorce and kink - 2 of these involved outing due to FetLife photos.

Groups

    There were 10 requests for help involving BDSM and swing groups. 5 groups asked for advice on dealing with consent violations. 4 groups asked for assistance in setting up a club or dealing with zoning and local authorities/media. 1 group had questions about liability regarding house parties.

Media

    In an all-time low for NCSF, there was only 1 media incident this quarter. It involved a porn and sex ed convention in Dallas that was referred to us by Coalition Partner - they were getting attacked in the media for offering educational classes including some on the Lifestyle and BDSM.

Professionals

    Six professionals asked NCSF for information and resources to assist in them in providing their services. These included victim services, therapists, teachers and researchers.

Civil Law

    There were 3 cases involving civil law: 1 by a group of authors regarding Amazon discriminating against kinky covers on their books; and 1 who needed a referral to a kink aware attorney because of an outing on FetLife; and 1 pro domme who needed assistance.

Discrimination

    In another all time low, there were only 2 cases of discrimination. There was an employment issue because of educating about ssc BDSM at adult health center, and another person needed a referral to a kink aware attorney to deal with school disciplinary action.

If you need NCSF's help because of discrimination or to remove kink as a barrier to service, please contact our Incident Reporting & Response today! Email incident@ncsfreedom.org

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Source: NCSF Newsletter, 3rd Quarterxx 2015