About the NCSF
Fighting for your rights... The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is the political action group that represents individuals and organizations that are involved in BDSM, polyamory and/or the swinger lifestyle. It consists of a coalition of 33 educational and social groups that are committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the U.S. that advances the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression.
Formed in 1997, however, NCSF is more than a PAC. It provides a range of support for sexual minorities who have been discriminated against. NCSF's Incident Response team provides assistance to individuals dealing with custody battles, employment discrimination, guidelines for posting sexually expressive material on the web, criminal cases, and negative encounters with law enforcement. In 2003, the Incident Response team responded to more than 500 such cases, 42% of which involved assisting individuals.
The Exiles is one of NCSF's Coalition Partners, and I, Julie, am your representative. As a Coalition Partner, the Exiles has a role in electing the NCSF Board of Directors and in networking with other leather groups across the country. Other groups that belong include The Society of Janus, smOdyssey, the Lesbian Sex Mafia, and FIST. In the coming months, I will be using this space to provide background information about NCSF, and give you updates on important cases that affect the kink community. This information will also be posted on the Exiles' website.
Some of you may be aware of Barbara Nitke's case against John Ashcroft regarding her right to display her photography on the web. With NCSF's support Nitke initiated this suit against Ashcroft in late 2001 as a direct challenge to the Communications Decency Act, which criminalizes free speech on the Internet. The CDA contains provisions that ban speech and images from the Internet that any local community in the U.S. could deem obscene, even though that speech would be fully protected elsewhere. NCSF and Nitke maintain that adults have the right to post sexually explicit material on the Internet for other adults to view.
In July '05, a three-judge panel ruled that the plaintiffs presented "insufficient evidence" to support findings that the variation in community standards is substantial enough that protected speech is inhibited by the CDA. However, the court agreed that NCSF members and Barbara Nitke are genuinely at risk of prosecution under the CDA and that their speech has in fact been inhibited.
On August 22 '05, Nitke and NCSF have filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding this decision
Wave of Obscenity Prosecutions Leads to Closure and Self-Censorship of SM Websites
October 20, 2005 - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced that his office will specifically target "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" in pursuing new obscenity prosecutions. The Department of Justice began recruiting in late July for a new anti-obscenity squad to pursue obscenity prosecutions, and the FBI announced in September that it was forming an anti-obscenity task force to crack down on pornography.
Any website that has content containing "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" should be forewarned that prosecution is possible. Additionally, Federal Sentencing guidelines state that any obscenity-related punishment should be "enhanced for sadomasochistic material."
Forty people and businesses have been convicted of obscenity since 2001, and 20 additional indictments are pending according to Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation and obscenity section. There were only four obscenity prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration.
Though adult content is, in theory, protected by the First Amendment, only a jury can determine if a work is obscene or not under the subjective set of standards that vary from one community to the next established in the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Miller v. California.
Text is not inherently more protected than images when it comes to obscenity charges. The erotic fiction website Red Rose Stories is facing obscenity charges after federal agents raided the owner's home on October 3rd, taking computer equipment and diskettes that contained all of their files and site information. The Department of Justice is clearly hoping that websites will self-censor or remove their content entirely. The owner of three SM websites, known as GrandPa DeSade, removed his websites from the Internet. SuicideGirls.com also announced they are self-censoring their materials over concerns about a possible obscenity crackdown.
Recent prosecutions of obscenity on websites include: A former police officer in Lakeland, Florida, was arrested on October 7th on over 300 obscenity-related charges for the sexual content posted on his website. The same day, webmaster Chris Wilson, owner of amateur website NowThatsFuckedUp.com, was raided on charges of obscenity by a local Sheriff’s office. "I think it's crucial for us to stand up for consensual sadomasochism and other alternative sexual practices," says Barbara Nitke, fetish photographer. "This is a battle worth fighting, and I hope everyone who can will just censor out the most provocative material from their websites, but keep them up. I also appeal to the lawyers in our community to help us find ways to keep people's websites up."
Barbara Nitke and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) have proactively challenged federal obscenity laws as applied to the Internet, arguing that obscenity laws based on "local community standards" are too vague and their existence burdens protected speech, resulting in self-censorship due to the fear of prosecution. A district court three-judge panel in New York ruled that while Nitke and the NCSF members were at risk, more proof was needed that obscenity laws cause otherwise protected speech to be restrained through acts of self-censorship. The case is currently on appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
"The effect of silencing alternative lifestyle speech was exactly why we brought the lawsuit," says attorney John Wirenius, lead counsel for NCSF. "The self-censorship we are seeing underscores the importance of supporting our ongoing obscenity challenge."
To contribute to the appeal of the CDA lawsuit, go to the NCSF website at www.ncsfreedom.org