About Me

Apart from the fact that I’m a nice guy who lives in San Francisco with my two partners, here’s some other information about me you might find interesting.

Learning about and exploring nontraditional sex has been one of my passions as a practitioner, organizer, educator, commentator, activist and leader since my first forays into the gay men’s leather world in 1973. Since that time I’ve ardently explored my own sexuality and encouraged others to do the same. Here’s some other background information about me.

• Founded, along with Guy Baldwin, Kink Aware Professionals, a non-profit service that refers people to kink-sensitive psychotherapeutic, medical and legal professionals. I recently turned over ownership and management of Kink Aware Professionals to the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and they now maintain that site.
• Project leader of The DSM Project, a grassroots coalition of psychotherapeutic professionals worldwide that banded together to influence the categorization and diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the book most psychotherapeutic professionals look to when diagnosing mental health issues. The project led to a beneficial change in the way the psychotherapeutic profession views kink.
• Author of the best seller Learning The Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun SM Lovemaking, the first basic instructional book on SM sexuality catering to men and women of all orientations. A revised edition will be published as an e-book in 2010 and will be available on this site for purchase.
• Founded and served as President and Managing Editor for Daedalus Publishing Company, the first publishing company dedicated to publishing non-fiction books about leather/SM/fetish sexuality. I sold the company many years ago.
• Prominently featured in the documentaries Vice and Consent (winner of Best Documentary at the CineKink Film Festival in New York) and Out of the Darkness: The Reality of S&M.
• Written many articles on sexuality and a former sex advice columnist.
• Producer and host of Bound To Talk, the first internet talk show about nontraditional sexuality and relationships.
• Southern California Regional Pantheon of Leather Community Service Award, 1991 and 1993.
• Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year Pantheon of Leather Community Service Award, The DSM Project (Race Bannon, Project Leader), 1995.
• Current Board of Directors member for Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS).
• Current member of Board of Governors for the Leather Hall of Fame.
• Past Board member of National Leather Association International and Avatar Club Los Angeles.
• Co-Founder and Board member of National Leather Association Los Angeles.
• Current member of the Chicago Hellfire Club.
• Regularly interviewed by the press, radio, and television as an expert on alternative sexuality.
• Spoken to thousands of people at over 375 speaking engagements.