The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office have updated their travel advice to Dubai to reflect the recent jailing of the Brits caught kissing on the beach:

Women should dress in a modest way, particularly in Sharjah and Ajman Emirates where Islamic law is rigorously enforced. Clothes should cover the tops of the arms and legs, and underwear should not be visible.

Public displays of affection are frowned upon, and there have been several arrests for kissing in public. Sex outside of marriage is illegal, and problems will be encountered if an unmarried woman gives birth in the UAE. These problems can range from a refusal to issue a birth certificate to arrest and imprisonment. A marriage certificate has to be provided to the UAE authorities to obtain a birth certificate. Cohabitation, adultery and homosexual behaviour are also illegal.

Swearing or making rude gestures is considered an obscene act and offenders can be prosecuted. It has been known for offenders to receive a six-month jail sentence for such an act. Particular caution should be exercised when dealing with the police and other officials.

The British man convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach is still in jail, his solicitor said.

Vince Acors was due to land at Heathrow yesterday. He and Michelle Palmer received suspended jail sentences for public indecency.

Update: Re-arrested

23rd December 2008. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Vince Acors has been re-arrested as he prepared to board a flight back to Britain, his lawyer said.

He was detained at Dubai Airport and returned to jail as his flight confirmation was allegedly not in order.

His lawyer Andrew Crossley said tonight: The return of Vince Acors has been delayed yet again and he will not be returning to the UK tomorrow. The situation is close to becoming farcical and Vince is severely disappointed.

He added: After having booked and confirmed his return flight on three separate occasions through the course of the day Vince was re-arrested at Dubai Airport, as his flight confirmation was allegedly not in order. He has been returned to jail, his precise return is now unknown.

Update: Returned

25th December 2008. See article from news.bbc.co.uk

A British man who was convicted of having sex on a beach in Dubai has flown home, his lawyer says.

Vince Acors was given a jail sentence suspended on appeal, along with Michelle Palmer.

Acors was due to fly home earlier but was re-arrested just before boarding a flight because his visa had expired.

Palmeris already in the UK.

A campaign to allow nude bathing on a beach in the Eastern Suburbs has the backing of Sydney's Lord Mayor.

Clover Moore has written to the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Carmel Tebbutt, in her capacity as the mayor for Sydney, asking the minister to review the classification of Little Congwong beach on Botany Bay, La Perouse.

In the letter Ms Moore wrote that the NSW Free Beach Action Group's campaign had generated community support, demonstrated by a recent online poll by the Southern Courier newspaper.

There were 320 votes in support of a two-year nudity trial at the beach and 32 votes against the plan.

Connecticut police have arrested three men accused of running a swingers’ club inside a hotel bar.

E-mailed photos of risqué behavior led police to Club 91 and the Beverly Hills Suites in Windsor Locks.

They said on weekends the club would run Swingers Groups where men and women came to either engage in or watch sexual activity.

When killjoy police raided last month, they said they witnessed it first hand and report seeing 60 to 70 people inside the club.

All of them paid a $40 admission to get in. Police arrested the three men who they said organized the Swingers Groups.

Nicholas Maulucci faces obscenity and public indecency charges while Brian True and Sharok Jacobi face criminal liability to commit those two charges.

Supposed liquor law violations at the club included smoking inside a public building, nudity, sex acts, not serving food and improper use of a service bar.

Two German tourists were caught in the act and fined Bt500 each for having sex inside an ancient temple in Ayutthaya a central province of Thailand.

The couple were found by an official of National Historical Park of Ayutthaya having sex on a wall of the Srisanphet Temple at 12:30 pm.

They stopped when the park official, Phaithoon Puengthong, blew his whistle while running toward them.

The couple were handed over to police and were fined Bt500 (£10) each before released.

Two Britons found guilty of having sex on a Dubai beach are to be deported without serving any jail sentence.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors had appealed against their convictions.

They were caught on Jumeirah Beach on 5 July and fined £170 and sentenced to three months in prison in October.

The pair were freed on bail during the appeals process and a court has now withdrawn their three-month jail terms.

Hassan Matter, who represented the couple in court, said: The judge has cancelled the jail. He refused the prosecution appeal [for the sentences to be increased].

Palmer and Acors were found guilty of unmarried sex and public indecency at Dubai's Court of First Instance.

One of Europe’s most famous nudist colonies has become the subject of an unusual investigation by French detectives after the destruction of three nightclubs in fires blamed on naturist hardliners.

The normally peaceful Cap d’Agde, a magnet for nudists in the south of France, has been plunged into anxiety. Investigators suspect fundamentalist naturists of harbouring a grudge against the échangistes, or swingers, who are drawn to the town by the promise of sex.

A swingers club, called Glamour was the first to be razed, in April. The next day the Palme Ré, another orgy venue, went up in flames. In September the Tantra club and Zen, its neighbouring bar, were destroyed in blazes.

Nobody was hurt but the fires have shocked a community. Tensions have arisen between the naturists, who believe that nudity is a healthy choice of lifestyle and nothing to do with sex, and the échangistes, who are attracted to nudist camps by the prospect of multiple partners.

Some in Cap d’Agde attribute the fires to fundamentalist mullahs of chaste nudity, as one magazine called them, who have often harangued holiday-makers venturing onto nudist beaches in bathing costumes. Others denied that naturists could have been involved.

When it comes to public nudity, Seattle may be the most liberal city in the US, but a number of organized, naked bike rides prompted the parks department to reconsider nudity on beaches and city parks.

But the city's parks board refused to ban non-offensive public nudity despite some complaints from nutters.

Nude events will therefore likely continue in the future, although perhaps under tighter scrutiny.

The parks board decided that to limit nudists would be to single them out. If nudists follow the rules, they can continue to use the parks.

Naked bike rides are a Seattle tradition. In Seattle it's illegal to flash someone, but perfectly legal to run around nude and police officers take action only if a nudist is lewd or obscene.

The bare facts of the law are that if you knowingly show yourself naked with the intent to alarm and offend people that's illegal, said Sergeant Sean Whitcom, of the Seattle Police Department. Just being nude is not against the law.

A man known as the Naked Rambler has been cleared of committing a breach of the peace after leaving Barlinnie Prison on 14 October with no clothes on.

Stephen Gough was acquitted at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, but was rearrested in the foyer.

A month-long rainforest sex party at a notable Queensland nudist resort is a recipe for disaster that could attract sexual predators, prominent naturalists say.

The White Cockatoo Resort in Port Douglas has announced it will hold an adults-only month of hedonism in March next year in a bid to increase dwindling tourist numbers.

The resort — once billed as the nation's top destination for swingers — is close to being booked out, according to owner Tony Fox.

But nudists, who have described the planned romp as debauched, fear sexual predators will be enticed out of the woodwork by the throng of naked flesh.

The resort is asking for trouble — once these things start it's very becomes very difficult to draw the lines about what’s acceptable, Lindsay Parkyns, president of the Australian Nudist Federation, told ninemsn: This is going to fly in the face of years for campaigning. We try to get beaches to be clothes optional but unfortunately that attracts the wrong sort of people — particularly single guys looking for sex — and [the resort’s party] will keep reinforcing that problem.

Mr Fox, owner of the White Cockatoo Resort, said next year's event had nothing to do with the prudie nudies and described their criticism as penis envy. The fact that it is almost fully booked out is proof there is a desire for a product like this.

Judging by the number of column inches devoted to the subject in recent months, one would be forgiven for thinking that partner-swapping had become the noughties equivalent of the Tupperware party. But is swinging really Sweden’s new favourite hobby?

...Read full article

Two Britons who fornicated on a Dubai beach could face longer jail terms after prosecutors appealed the sentence.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors were convicted at Dubai's Court of First Instance earlier this month. They were sentenced to three months behind bars, fined 1,000 dirhams – £155 – and issued with deportation orders.

Hassan Matter, who represents Palmer and Acors, said prosecutors have now lodged an appeal against the sentence, saying it was not enough.

Mr Matter said the prosecution appeal would be heard on November 18 – at the same time as the defence argument. Last week, Mr Matter lodged an appeal against the convictions.

Following the convictions of Palmer and Acors, on October 16, senior persecutor Faisal Abdelmalek Ahli said he was disappointed at the length of the sentence: It's very light. It's normal for a sentence to be six months to a year for an offence such as this.

Egyptian police have arrested a senior civil servant and his wife for organizing orgies and swinging parties and hosting wife swaps.

An investigation revealed that 44 Egyptian families responded to an Internet ad placed by the government employee and his wife soliciting participants for the orgies that were held over three months at the couple's house.

The couple had sex with three couples from among the applicants. The man said that the couples who came to his orgies had to have an official marriage contract and not the unofficial (Urfi) one. Otherwise, they were not admitted: The rest were rejected because they were not pleasant.

The accused man said he got the idea from a porn movie, and that his wife agreed. They send invitations to couples throughout Greater Cairo and received several responses.

The two defendants were detained for four days while the prosecution prepared an indictment bill to refer them to the criminal court.

Police also arrested a lawyer who was finalizing a wife swap and a couple from the Gulf who were seeking a swap for the weekend.

A man 'illegally' used his home to run a sex club in his quiet suburban Dallas neighborhood, a municipal jury ruled Tuesday.

Jim Trulock was found guilty on five counts of operating a sexually oriented business without a permit and five counts of operating a sex club, all misdemeanors. He faces $7,500 in fines, but he also has pending criminal charges tied to his weekend swinger parties.

He also was charged with suspicion of engaging in organized criminal activity, a felony that carries a sentence of five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine up to $10,000. A court date for that charge has not been set.

Attorneys for Trulock said his home was not a business, but rather a private residence where friends socialized. A Web site advertising the weekend parties at The Cherry Pit showed a room of beds grouped together and underwear hanging above a bar.

City prosecutors contended that the Web site and admission charges proved the home was being used as a business. Trulock's attorneys said the money came from voluntary donations.

A Moray picnic spot has become a popular meeting place for "doggers" in north Scotland.

The Leggat car park in Quarrel Wood has been targeted by people indulging in al-fresco sexual fun.

Quarrel Wood Woodland Park Association have asked the police and Forestry Commission, who own the land, for help to stop the problem when it first emerged a few years ago. The problem has reached such a level that the association say they do not publicise the area to the general public.

Those using the area are said to whistle a special tune to let others know they are there. Another sign indicating someone is looking for a sexual partner is leaving the car boot open.

The Quarrel Wood picnic area is not the only place in Moray used by doggers, a name given to people who take part in outdoor sexual activities with strangers and those who watch them.

It is one of several recommended on a popular swingers’ website as a suitable spot where all sorts of shenanigans take place. Forres, Buckie and Alves are among other towns and villages listed on the website. Areas favoured by doggers include Strathlene Beach and the Viewpoint at Buckie, Califer Viewpoint in Forres, the car park close to the crawler lane at Alves, Roseisle Beach car park, Portknockie Harbour, and the Customs and Excise car park in the middle of Elgin. Morriston playingfields, close to Elgin Academy, is also said to be popular.

A spokesman for the Forestry Commission said they would be monitoring the situation at the Leggat car park: Quarrel Wood is there for the local community and visitors to enjoy. It is a great resource, so this kind of antisocial activity is most unwelcome.

Two Britons found guilty of having sex on a Dubai beach have lodged an appeal against their conviction.

Hassan Matter, who represents them, said the appeal hearing would take place in Dubai on 18 November.

I made the appeal today, said Mr Matter. We say they are not guilty.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors remain on bail ahead of next month's hearing.

Police chiefs are being urged to turn a blind eye to some forms of public indecency.

Guidelines circulated to senior officers encourage them to ignore dogging and cottaging offences unless enough members of the public complain.

The draft rules issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers say prosecutions should only be considered as a last resort for fear of having an extreme impact on offenders' lives.

The document on policing public sex environments has been sent to all forces in the UK by Michael Cunningham, deputy chief constable of Lancashire and ACPO spokesman on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 those who take part in dogging, where couples meet up for exhibitionist outdoor sex, and cottaging, where men meet for sex in public lavatories, face arrest for outraging public decency, voyeurism and exposure.

But the guidance cautions officers against knee jerk reactions. Instead police are told to concentrate on dealing with organised outdoor meetings at known hotspots - by researching sex forums on the internet - and only to prosecute as a last resort.

In the report Mr Cunningham writes that current policing methods have adversely affected the relationship between the police and communities and have discouraged users of public sex environments from reporting crime.

Where isolated complaints are made, officers are told it may be decided that they should take no action. Even where there are persistent problems they should inform and dissuade users of the site before arranging for extra lighting or CCTV cameras to be installed.

If that fails police can put on extra patrols, but the guidance stresses that this is only a deterrent and is not to detect offences.

Arresting and prosecuting men for cottaging - some of whom may be married, and living a double life - can have a severe impact on them without solving the problems,  Cunningham says. He added: The impact can be extreme and can include humiliation, breakdown of relationships and the "outing" of men living in an opposite sex relationship being perceived as "gay". He refers to cases of suicide and self-harm by people who may have been arrested or come into contact with the police.

ACPO stressed yesterday that the document was a draft being circulated for discussion among police chiefs and the proposals had not been officially adopted.

Two Britons who have been jailed for three months for a sexual liaison on a beach in Dubai insist they are "innocent" and will appeal against their sentence.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors met at a £60 all-you-can-drink champagne brunch in July and were arrested hours later by police who claimed they had been having sex on the public Jumeirah beach.

Judge Hamdi Abul Khair, who has presided over their case at Dubai's Court of First Instance, sentenced them to three months imprisonment, fined them 1,000 dirhams (£155) each for drinking alcohol and ordered their deportation after their sentence.

But he did not make clear whether the sentence related purely to the charge of indecent behaviour or the charge of sex outside marriage.

The unfortunate couple will remain on bail in Dubai pending the appeal, which will be lodged after the judge issues a formal explanation of his verdict, in two weeks.

Hassan Mattar, defence lawyer for the pair, said: "The verdict shows that the judge was convinced that they did not have sexual intercourse but he punished them for the indecent act of kissing (in public).

Senior persecutor Faisal Abdelmalek Ahli said: The sentence is rather light. I expect the prosecution to appeal.

Under the law of the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is part, the maximum sentence for sexual intercourse outside of marriage is one year imprisonment and the minimum is three months, he said. The same applies for committing an indecent act in public.

Ahli said he expected Acors and Palmer to serve their full three-month term in Dubai: Sometimes people serve half their sentence, but this is so short I expect they will serve it all.

The owners of the Cherry Pit, a swingers club in Duncanville, are in trouble with the law again.

Owners James Trulock and Julie Norris were arrested late this week on suspicion of money laundering, a second degree felony.

If convicted, they could face two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

The Duncanville city council approved an ordinance this past year prohibiting sexually oriented businesses within the city limits. City leaders said the Cherry Pit, a home near Interstate 20 and North Cedar Ridge Drive where Trulock and Norris hosted swingers parties, qualifies as a sexually oriented business because it takes money at the door.

 

A schoolroom-style suspected brothel has been discovered in a police raid in Wakefield.
Officers visited “Westgate Old School” in the city centre and found a fully-equipped classroom and a room kitted out to look like a dungeon. Two women were arrested at the premises and questioned on suspicion of running a brothel for personal gain.

Police were investigating what was going on at the building, in Thompson’s Yard, when screams were heard coming from behind a locked door.

Officers from Wakefield central neighbourhood police team took action and arrested the two women. Both were later bailed pending further inquiries.

As the arrests were being made, men were arriving to take part in what they described as “harmless role-play”.

They had come from throughout the country for the event which could cost up to £200 each. At the premises, police found equipment including stocks, whips, birches and masks, while there was also a classroom with a blackboard and the office of headteacher Miss W Hastings-Gore. There were also uniforms, handcuffs and a cage.

Westgate Old School’s website advertises its services as role-play in its school classroom and dungeon. It says: “Day schools have always been the backbone of schools run by Hastings-Gore. These events comprise a mixed class of pupils, boys, girls and cross-dressers, experiencing a full day of school lessons, based on the old school values. It also makes mention of caning nights, spanking parties and promotes three-day boarding school events with stays in school dormitories.

The raid came after possible links were discovered between Westgate Old School and a party billed as Northern Caning Nite, which was to have included caning competitions and corporal punishment. However that event, which cost £25 a ticket, was cancelled earlier this month.

Comment: Police Priorities

From spanking-news.com:

With knife crime rife on our streets, our kids killing each other daily, drugs being peddled at the school gate and in clubs attended by vulnerable young people. With children dying from neglect and child poverty within our urban communalities it’s reassuring to know that the nations plods still have time to protect our morality and to ensure that we, as consenting adults do not stray from the straight and narrow path of state authorised enjoyment.

Westgate Old School, a veritable temple amongst the plethora of establishments where safe, sane consensual activities could be carried out amongst and involving only consenting adults has been ‘raided’ by the nations finest. What were they hoping to find one has to ask?

Did they expect to see kidnapped children secured to the floor and forced into unpaid labour producing shirts for some of our better known high street retailers, did the think they would be knee deep in drugs being packaged for sale on the nations streets by a criminal gang arriving for work each morning dressed as schoolmasters and aging schoolboys? What crime were they investigating?

Once you have worked out what the crime being committed was and ranked it alongside the other felonies being committed in the Wakefield area we suggest you write to the chief constable of West Yorkshire and tell him that you would be a lot happier if his bobbies were out on the streets protecting you and your kids from real criminals. I suspect that most of the bobbies would rather be doing that as well. Oh! Raise a glass in support of Miss. W. Hastings-Gore for she may need all the help she can get once the paragons of virtue inhabiting the judicial establishment realise that she may be an easy ‘nick’ and throw the might of the state into incarcerating her in a dungeon… No better not go down that road or she may make my next visit a very painful one.

A bungalow is at the centre of allegations that it has been used as a sex dungeon specialising in sadomasochism.

Police, the fire service and council jobsworths were called in after complaints about activities at the detached property in Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire.

Their attention had been brought to a website on which the premises, in a quiet suburban area, were advertised as The House of Pleasure and Pain.

Among pathetically trivial fire hazards being looked into were claims of "waxplay" in which burning candles are dripped onto a client.

The website, currently displaying just placeholder, described the premises as giving people the chance to dress up as adult babies and offers outdoor domination, schoolroom scenarios and experiences in the woodland.

It states that a Mistress Storm does not offer any sexual services, but describes her as a brown-haired, blue eyed 44 year old natural born sadist. A disclaimer read: Any money paid to the ladies listed on this website is for their time and companionship alone. Whatever else that may occur is the choice of consenting adults.

A Lancashire Fire Regulation jobsworth said: We attended and offered advice about things such as fire alarms and marked exits: If it is found to be operating as a business there would be shortfalls. But until that decision is made, as a domestic property, we can only offer advice.

Police and Preston city council are continuing investigations into activities at the premises.

Ins Jameel Murtza, of Lancashire Police, said: The property has been brought to our attention. Ludicrously citing a Under a law made 260 years ago he said: it is an offence to keep a disorderly house, used by members of the public and not regulated by the restraints of morality.

A council spokesman said: Council officers will visit the property to look into how the building is being used to assess whether the owners have the correct planning permission.

The Kapiti Coast District Council is looking at introducing a bylaw to turn the coast into one of the world's longest nudist beaches.

The proposed area is 45 kilometres of beach that stretches from Paekakariki to Otaki.

The local naturists say the District Council's new nude friendly plan is not just great for the region but also great for New Zealand.

And estimated 200 nudists frequent the Kapiti Coast and while there has been opposition to the plans, Councillor Peter Ellis says they are just moving with the times.

Residents have up until October 24 to make submissions opposing the change. Otherwise the nature coast could become the naturist coast.

It's Friday night in Sheffield and, at the old Robin Hood pub, the conversation is growing lively. It would be a fantastic experience to see you strip off and see you two play with each other. Then I would join and play with my wife if she lets me, says Simon, a chubby, middle-aged Yorkshireman with a cheeky grin. His wife Toni, who is slim and curly-haired and looks a decade younger than him, gives me a reassuring smile as I nearly drop my notepad on the floor.

The Robin Hood is no ordinary pub. Once a watering hole for local steelworkers, it went through a radical makeover nearly a decade ago. The dartboards were replaced with large TVs showing hardcore porn, the pool table made way for pole dancing poles, an S&M dungeon was added, and the Robin Hood acquired an alternative identity as La Chambre, one of Britain's most successful swingers' club.

...Read full article

Duncanville officials report both of the owners of a neighborhood swingers club have been arrested on charges associated with operating an unregistered club.

Julie Norris was arrested at the Cherry Pit Wednesday and is currently being held at the Duncanville Police Department Jail.

Norris runs the Cherry Pit with Jim Trulock. He was arrested on the same charges two weeks ago and has since been released from jail.

Warrants for their arrests were issued after Duncanville police confiscated business records, alcoholic beverages and other evidence in July.

The charges carry a one-year jail sentence and a fine of up to $4,000.

The owner of a suburban Dallas swingers club is accused of storing and serving alcoholic drinks without a permit.

Duncanville police arrested Jim Trulock on September 5th. He co-owns the Cherry Pit and was released after posting a $1,500 bond.

The Dallas Morning News reports officials allege Trulock and club co-owner Julie M. Norris violated the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code.

Trulock's attorney Ed Klein tells The Associated Press he thinks: it's just something else in a long line of things that the city of Duncanville is doing to run him out town.

According to the website swing4ireland, picturesque Hazelbank Park along the Shore Road is among the most popular hunting grounds in County Antrim for those involved in "dogging."

The swing4ireland website, which has almost 38,000 members, lists County Antrim as top of the league for outdoor sex sessions, with 27 locations from the White Rocks at Portrush to Hillsborough Forest. The Newtownabbey Council operated public park in Whitehouse is listed twice. Also highlighted as a top spot for dogging is Knockagh Monument at Greenisland.

Condemning reports of sex in public places across Newtownabbey, former Mayor Nigel Hamilton said he believed that dogging had been taking place not only at Hazelbank Park but in public spaces around Ballyclare too: This type of behaviour is totally unacceptable and is a criminal offence. The police have a responsibility to monitor these key areas and deal with the problem appropriately.

In a statement this week, Newtownabbey Council said it had not received any complaints about parks or toilets in relation to the activities highlighted recently in the press.

A Brisbane swingers' club is boasting that it is the first in the country to gain council approval and operate just like any other business.

With 600 couples on their membership list and council approval to keep swinging, the owners of Couples International, Bryan and Leesa Horn, could not be happier.

Now we're seen as a lifestyle choice not just as an underground hidden culture that has been around since if not well before the 70s until now, Mrs Horn told AM.

Earlier this year, the Brisbane City Council threatened to shut it down because the building was zoned inappropriately. But Mr and Mrs Horn lodged a re-zoning application: We did have objections from the moral right. But the tone of the objection was about suggesting that child molesters come here and that sort of thing, which is, I mean, who would ever know frankly.

Councillor Helen Abrahams says the majority of submissions in the planning application were in favour of the application and the building has been re-zoned as a nightclub, which she says is the most appropriate category the council had. She says council had to consider the application purely as a zoning decision: Council cannot consider the moral aspects of this application, and in fact the condition of development clearly states that this is only for the purpose of the building. It does not comment on the legality of whether a swingers' club is lawful under state legislation.

Update: Nutters Miffed

13th September 2008

Australian Christian Lobby Queensland Director Peter Earle said it was a shame local councillors representlng local nutters were effectively gagged when it came to controversial sex venues in their communities:

To gag councillors from discussing the social implications of such activity and force them to approve these applications solely on town planning grounds is ridiculous.

The Integrated Planning Act must be amended to give power back to local [nutter] communities

Two Britons have appeared in court in Dubai after allegedly having sex on a beach in the Muslim emirate. What would happen if a couple got frisky on a beach in the UK?

The Sexual Offences Act 2003, which mainly covers England and Wales but also covers Northern Ireland in some areas, does not specifically legislate against sex on the beach so long as the act is consensual, says a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman.

Effectively sex on the beach in isolated places is allowed, so long as there is a reasonable expectation of privacy - which someone engaging in such an activity would be expected to prove. But someone could be charged with outraging public decency under common law, she says, if it is proven that at least one person has seen the act.

The witness has to see the act of intimacy first-hand. CCTV does not count, says travel lawyer Philip Banks, of the firm Irwin Mitchell.

Section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - which bans exposing one's genitals if the intention is to cause alarm or distress - can also be applied in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Although the act does not fully apply in Scotland, indecent exposure is an offence under common law, says a spokesman for the Law Society of Scotland, although intent would be difficult to prove. The same expectation of privacy applies north of the border, although there could be a breach of the peace if someone saw and was offended.

Another thing to bear in mind is that getting frisky on the beach in the presence of a child is a criminal offence under section 11 of the act, says the Ministry of Justice spokeswoman.

And a person can also be charged if they use words, behaviour or display to cause another person harassment, alarm or distress under sections four and five of the Public Order Act 1986.

But both of these offences only apply if the couple intend to cause alarm, or are aware that a child is watching, says Banks: These legislations are very unlikely to be used in this context.

It is rare for an amorous couple to appear in court, says criminal lawyer Mark Haslam, of BCL Burton Copeland. If police do spot a couple engaging in al fresco love making, they are more likely to issue a caution or warning.

But if it is reported by a passing - and outraged - member of the public, the couple are likely to be prosecuted and would probably be fined, with the case reported gleefully in the local press, says Banks.

National Go Topless Day was held over the weekend, and protesters were out in full force in and around Central Park to fight for their rights to be topless in public.

Of course, in New York it is legal--in 1992 the NY State Appeals Court ruled that women have the right to go topless, just like men.

The Empire State ladies were merely marching in support of the women who get fined, humiliated and arrested around the nation. Some of the picket signs read: Shame is Lethal, Go Top Free & Be Healthy, Breasts Are No Longer Indecent in NY, and of course the 'ol standy, Free Your Breasts, Free Your Mind.

As the founder of GoTopless.org, Rael, put it: as long as men can be topless, constitutionally women should have the same right, or men should also be forced to wear something hiding their chest.

Regan Lane-Smith and Nonah Elliston outfitted their six-bedroom rental house with 15 mattresses, bondage crosses and sex swings. They built elaborate sets in their backyard for taking erotic photos.

And they promoted the Hardwood Cabin online.

Up to 60 guests at a time came to mingle, sunbathe nude by the pool and have sex with fellow swingers and fetishists, Elliston said. Parties were frequent enough that the couple's laundry service was cycling through 50 bedsheets a week.

But the couple shut down the sex club last month when they were cited for running a business without a license and threatened with fines of up to $513 a day.

City officials say naked or not, the couple had been warned that their activities violated zoning laws for their residential neighborhood. Large swingers groups aren't unusual locally, but they generally meet in commercial areas or hotels and not close to other homes.

A former policeman who admitted running a brothel has been spared being jailed.

Brian Sheridan ran Hamshaws, also known as Club Liberty, a club for swingers, with his wife Caroline.

Their plans for a three-day fetish festival on the site at Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath, were halted by police in 2006.

Local nutters had hired a snitch private investigator to infiltrate the club. He discovered up to 60 men were attending Pandora’s Party nights held at the club every Wednesday.

The event was run by a prostitute called Pandora and paid Sheridan for use of the club but had two other prostitutes working with her.

Private eye snitch Richard Clarke posed as a new member in April 2006 and paid a £150 entrance fee. He said Pandora and her girls had group and individual sex with clients in the games room while other men watched.

Sheridan and his wife, from Cobham, Surrey, were arrested but denied managing a brothel between November 2005 and June 2006.

They were due to stand trial at Hove Crown Court last month but Sheridan changed his plea to guilty at the last moment. Prosecutors offered no evidence against Mrs Sheridan who was found not guilty on the orders of the judge.

Sheridan was given a ten-month prison sentence suspended for two years. Judge Cedric Joseph also sentenced Sheridan to 40 hours unpaid community work.

Update: Planning to Demolish

30th September

A former brothel and swingers club could be demolished to make way for luxury homes.

If the plans are accepted, it would be the end of a piece of history for the sleepy village of Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath.

On Thursday, Mid Sussex District Council will consider the plans to change the face of Hamshaws in Sloop Lane.

The land was bought last year by Scandia Hus. Planners will decide whether to demolish all buildings, including the club house, and allow four detached houses.

A naturist club in London's Kilburn, which police claim is a brothel, has had its licence revoked. The Soho Beach House in Kilburn High Road was stripped of its licence by Camden Council bosses.

In the course of 10 visits since March, police compiled a dossier of evidence including used condoms, traces of cocaine and reports from the public that women were available for £120.

Owner Douglas Ifedha asked for a second chance, saying his club was not a brothel and that he had learned from his mistakes. But he could not convince the licensing panel. He said the cost of £120 was for entry to an all-night private party, which included drinks but not sex, although only the men pay.

It's not a brothel at all. It's a themed event - it's a swingers party, he pleaded: We don't have women there and men paying them for sex. We have couples or bikini nights. There might be sex going on but it's a private party. People don't understand what's going on in there.

Ifedha has vowed to appeal the decision.

The Pleasure Palace is a place where sexy is the dress code and where the world comes to play, according to its Web site.

Hillsborough County code enforcement officials use more succinct language, calling the Tampa business  a sexual encounter center and a swingers club.

A hearing on Sept. 3 will determine if the Pleasure Palace is in violation of the county's ordinance restricting sexually oriented businesses.

Under the law, an adult entertainment business and its employees must have licenses to remain open. The Pleasure Palace does not.

First Amendment lawyer Luke Lirot represents the Pleasure Palace and said the business is a private membership club that caters to people with more progressive sexual viewpoints. The business, open for seven years, has managed to avoid the county's definition of an adult entertainment establishment in the past, Lirot said.

Hillsborough sheriff's Maj. Paul Davis said his agency investigated the club this year and said that other than the code violations, no criminal activity has occurred at the Pleasure Palace.

The Sept. 3 quasi-judicial hearing will decide if the business is illegal and needs to be shut down, Davis said.

It's obviously not everybody's cup of tea, Lirot said. But these are human beings. It's an ideological issue, not an environmental or zoning issue.

From what is being reported by La Stampa newspaper in Italy, a quarter of all Italian couples regularly take part in wife swapping.

According to their article titled, The Lunch Time Swingers, almost 500,000 Italian couples are officially swapping partners at private sex clubs, and thousands more doing it in a more ad-hoc fashion in car parks, specially designated beaches or even cemeteries.

The report said that wife swapping had increased at a dizzying rate everywhere, and a major reason behind this predilection can be attributed to the internet which has apparently stripped away the taboos.

The article based its finding on the figures given by The International Federation for the Protection of Rights and Freedoms, or Federsex, in Rome, which said that wife swapping organizations have 500,000 members that meet in 200 private clubs across Italy and swap partners.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg; as the Federsex experts said that there exist closer to two million, or a quarter of the eight million sexually active couples across the country.

There are an estimated one million swingers in the UK and according to the author of a new book, the sexy pastime could become even more common place thanks to the credit crunch.

Ashley Lister, who wrote and researched Swingers: Female Confidential, reckons that in the coming months more people will shun expensive restaurants and nights out in favour of cheaper pleasures.

And for many that means meeting regularly to have sex with someone other than their partners.

Ashley says: With a recession on its way, swinging is about to go through a boom period because it is such a cost effective way for people to enjoy themselves and to get maximum enjoyment from minimum outlay.

Ashley spoke to students, single mums in their 20s, unemployed swingers, top lawyers and even swinging doctors - of every age, size and shape imaginable.

And he discovered that contrary to popular belief, most shun the notorious swingers parties in favour of getting to know a small number of similar minded people socially. Then it is simply a case of consenting adults taking part in whatever sexual practice they desire generally, with the full support and encouragement of their partner, husband or wife.

Ashley said: I found it riveting to talk to these people about a subject that is normally forbidden. They really are just normal people, it's just they have a liberated attitude towards sex. They could be your neighbour, your boss or even the person who sits next to you at work and you would never know. But what I enjoyed about it all was the openness among themselves and they actually seemed empowered by what they do in that they could state exactly what they want and just do that.

Having researched and written his insight into the world of swinging, Ashley was only left with one question about the ever growing phenomenon - why do women do it?

Ashley said: Nobody asked me why men did it, they seemed to understand men would do that kind of thing for more sex, but everyone asked what motivated women, so I decided to look into it and write Swingers: Female Confidential.

The taboos around sexual equality in the bedroom are finally being broken down and if we continue in the current vein they will be ultimately vanquished.

It used to be that a woman with a libido was considered to be dangerous or insane and there has long been the double standards between male and female promiscuity. To some extent that is still true today, but I don't think it has the same severe connotations that it used to have.

Society has become more open, we have the Ann Summer shops on the high street, we have erotic fiction in print and there is an acceptance now that women are allowed to be sexual creatures unrestricted by the double standard hierarchy imposed on them by a patriarchal society.

And liberated women are more free to do what they want and that's why I think they turn to swinging.

...Read full review

Another sex club has been operating in a North Texas neighborhood and nearby nutters want it to stop. Sources have told CBS 11 News that La Maison Joue is a so-called "swingers" club that, until recently, met at a hotel in Dallas.

In recent months a swingers club called The Cherry Pit has been scrutinized by police, city officials and neighbors in Duncanville. The organizer of the club in McKinney says she has nothing to do with the Cherry Pit.

Elizabeth Grilley denies operating a sex club, but admits adults meet to have "consensual" relationships in the home on Cordova Lane. Earlier this month the Executive Director for Development Services for the City of McKinney advised Grilley she is violating city ordinances. Grilley would not consent to an on-camera interview, but over the telephone she stated, We aren't anything like the Cherry Pit.

McKinney Police and city officials met with Grilley on June 16 and again on June 21. Following those meetings, the city issued a letter to Grilley informing her that the club would be violating a city ordinance by meeting in a single family dwelling. According to city officials, Grilley has agreed not to have any more parties at the house. This week the club shut down its Web site and a moving truck was seen moving furnishings out of the residence.

A Florida judge has all but ended the state's cases against 17 people who were arrested last year in two controversial raids at Broward sex clubs.

Upholding a lower court, Circuit Judge James I. Cohn ruled that someone other than an investigating police officer has to be offended in order for the crime of lewdness to occur at a swingers' club where notices were posted telling the squeamish to stay out. It was a further indication that the state's case, which attracted national attention, is rapidly collapsing.

It came one day after another Broward judge dismissed lewdness charges against the co-owner of one of the most popular of the clubs, Trapeze II.

Defense attorney Daniel Aaronson - who has four Trapeze defendants as clients and another person arrested during an earlier raid at the now-defunct Athena's Forum in Pompano Beach - said This is the nail in the coffin, and this should dismiss all these cases.

A total of 50 people were arrested at the two clubs 18 months ago by armed and masked Broward sheriff's deputies. Some defendants have had their charges dropped, others paid misdemeanor fines, but 17 men and women resolved to fight it out.

Melanie Dietrich of Chicago's Loving Couples Club said the Broward case is a landmark: People in the Lifestyle who were afraid no longer have to live with this fear because now they know that what they love to do is legal. There is no doubt now, as long as they have sex in private and do not bother anyone.

But nutters were predictably wound up.

Barbara Collier, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Broward County, said swingers are lewd because lewdness means they are preoccupied with sex and outrageous and indecent behavior.

The legal process was at fault, Collier whinged, because attorneys were able to strike off the list of jurors people with a strong sense of morality. There were not any moral people on that jury,  she said, reacting to comments made by jurors about what they felt was the state's inability to prove lewd behavior after a judge gave a directed verdict of acquittal in the case against Dennis Freeland, co-owner of Trapeze.

Collier said she felt that an apparent lack of public outrage at swingers' clubs operating in Broward - which has Florida's largest concentration - was reflected in the court's rejection of the state's case.

According to reports coming from France, sunbathers on the Cote d'Azur, who once adopted a "laissez faire" attitude to nakedness, have turned against displaying too much bare flesh.

Even regulars at La Voile Rouge beach club on Pampelonne's Beach, in St. Tropez, where it all started prefer to keep their top on.

The development has sparked a minor debate in the country which has always prided itself on being less prudish than its Anglo-Saxon neighbours.

For some it is simply a change in fashion, for others it marks a new conservatism sweeping France. Yet others say it is to do with increased health concerns about skin cancer and sensitivities to the growing Muslim community.

For decades, Germans holidaying on the white sandy beaches of Usedom have opted to leave their swimming trunks at home. Their penchant for naked bathing is nothing unusual in a country where naturism is popular and seen as natural.

But this summer, border controls between Germany and Poland were dismantled as part of the Schengen agreement. Now flocks of Poles stroll along the leafy coastal paths to nearby German towns - and many are shocked by what they see.

But for Germans of all ages who enjoy swimming and sunbathing on naturist - or FKK (free body culture) - beaches, the disapproving glances from Polish walkers are incomprehensible and intrusive.

Naturism is so popular on the Baltic coast island of Usedom that German travel agent OssiUrlaub selected it as a destination for its first nudist charter flight, a trip which was later cancelled because of "moral concerns".

It is disgusting, said Edward Zajac, a Szczecin politician who wants to move the FKK beach from the Polish border.

But the Germans, who have been unfolding their towels on the beach year in year out, are unlikely to want to move. For the time being, authorities plan to put up signs marking the boundaries of the nudist beach - in both German and Polish.

Nudists are a pretty tolerant bunch. But when a beach came under threat from developers it was too much to bear.

Defence research group Qinetiq had been involved in a two-and-a-half-year battle to get planning permission for more than 100 flats on former Ministry of Defence land next to the nudist beach at Eastney in Portsmouth.

The naturists opposed the plans, fearing Qinetiq would ban them so as not to put off potential buyers.

Yesterday they won the right to enjoy the beach after the company agreed to allow them access.

Mike Houlsby of the Eastney Naturist Beach Liaison Group said: Nudists have been using the beach since the mid-1930s and the MoD always turned a blind eye.

After a full day of sightseeing, Diane set out to do what she came to Toronto for: I went to Club Hers and they were having a blast.

I went to Wicked and there were lots of pretty people there. Diane is into "the lifestyle," and Toronto is her sexual playground: I try to get here once every other month.

The Greater Toronto Area i(GTA) s now home to at least a dozen establishments that describe themselves variously as "swingers' clubs," "hedonists' clubs" and "lifestyle clubs," and which are increasingly drawing clients from afar.

Ménage à Quatre, a new lifestyle club, has just opened in Etobicoke, bringing the total number of such establishments in the GTA to at least 12. The sex clubs have been proliferating since 2005, when a Supreme Court decision rewrote the definition of indecency, ruling that clubs that offer group sex and partner-swapping are legal because they cause society no harm.

Wicked, Club Hers and Ménage à Quatre are all "on-premise" establishments, meaning that clients can engage in sexual activities in the club - and just about anything, as long as it is consensual, goes.

On-premise clubs are illegal in some U.S. states, but even in states where they are technically legal, such as New York, the practice isn't well tolerated, says Richard Pollara, proprietor of Ménage à Quatre.

Although in operation only two months, Pollara's club already has 400 members: I would say that 25 to 30% of the people who are coming to the club are coming from more than an hour away, and the vast majority of them are coming from two or three hours away.

Wicked, which has been in operation for almost six years, claims 30,000 members. Ms. Benzion says membership spiked following the Supreme Court's ruling. The legitimization drew a lot of traffic from south of the border, she says. But membership swelled locally as well. The media coverage brought the lifestyle to people's attention, while the ruling legitimized it for people who might not have risked it.

Wicked's clientele is a far cry from most preconceptions of traditional swingers: over-tanned and over the hill, bobbing in a hot tub. Wicked does have a Jacuzzi, but the similarities end there. The crowd on a recent Saturday evening was multicultural, relatively young, and obviously well-groomed for the occasion.

Mr. Benzion, a savvy businessman, is aware of the revenue his establishment brings to the city. I'd like to see more backup from the municipal government. The same way as they're backing up Pride. In future, if we are doing good for the city, I'd like to see some recognition.

Two Britons accused of having sex in public on a Dubai beach have been charged with the most serious offences open to the authorities.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors had hoped to escape with a caution after they publicly apologised to the police officers involved in the case.

But the pair, who as part of their bail conditions are unable to leave Dubai, have been charged with three offences which could mean a maximum sentence of six years in prison if found guilty.

The triple charges are indecent behaviour, having unmarried sex and having consumed alcohol.

Update: Just Kissing

16th August 2008

The couple were summoned to appear before Dubai's Court of First Instance yesterday in a hurried hearing organised in a bid to ward off the intense media interest the case has generated both in the Muslim country and abroad.

They admitted consuming alcohol but denied the other offences. Legal sources said that unusually, they have opted to represent themselves in the case.

Judge Hamad Abdul Latif yesterday adjourned the case and both Palmer and Acors were ordered to stay in the country until the next court hearing, which according to some reports will be on September 2.

The battle between a swingers club and the City of Duncanville is escalating. This after armed police officers raided the "Cherry Pit" over the weekend.

On Saturday night police from Duncanville and Cedar Hill used a battering ram to force their way inside the Cherry Pit. With their weapons drawn, officers executed a search warrant looking for evidence of prostitution and money laundering.

Police were also looking for evidence that the Cherry Pit was operating as a sexually oriented business and sex club in a residential area.

A witness said: There was a big group of people… wearing solid black. One was wearing a mask. We waited for the homeowner to answer the door, and then they started busting it in. They ran in the house carrying automatic weapons, pistols... everyone was basically terrified.

Police say they went in with guns drawn because no one answered the door. They seized at least $500 in cash, DVDs, CDs and Cherry Pit business cards. Police made no arrests and did not issue any citations.

According to the attorney for the owners of the Cherry Pit, the owners and some 55 people inside were terrified and thought they were being robbed.

A swingers' club has been granted a licence for late-night entertainment and drinks.

Xscape Cambridge, based on the Norman Way Industrial Estate in Over, had its application for a premises licence approved by South Cambridgeshire District Council.

But the council's licensing subcommittee only granted a licence to the interior of the unit, after hearing concerns about "potentially highly inappropriate" conversations in the outdoor smoking area being overheard by children.

The club must also ask clients to provide a passport or driving licence to gain membership. Under the terms of the licence, the police can inspect the personal details of club members, including names and addresses, on request.

A retrospective planning application for change of use to a private members' club - including bar, dance floor and "rooms for sexual activities" - has yet to be heard.

The license application was considered under the four objectives of the Licensing Act 2003 - prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and protection of children from harm.

August 26 sees the celebration of Women's Equality Day. It marks the 72 anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote in nationwide elections.

However, on August 23, an organization known as Gotopless.org claims that women are discriminated against in the U.S. by suffering arrest for baring their bosoms in public. By contrast, dudes such as Matthew McConoughey can go shirtless whenever they desire.

Women who dare to be topless in public in the U.S. are arrested, fined, humiliated , criminalized.

On August 23, women will rally across the USA to protest this gross inequality in the law and will demand for the constitution to be amended to grant them the fundamental right to be topless wherever men are.

Currently the following rallies are slated:

• WASHINGTON, DC: Lafayette Park, across from the White House
• LOS ANGELES: Venice Beach
• NEW YORK CITY: Central Park
• HAWAII: Kona, Big Island
• DENVER: (August 26) at the door steps of the Presidential Democratic Convention.

Actually, several US and Canadian cities allow women to go without a shirt; however, few of them exercise the right. New York has a ruling from its high court that one of the most important purposes to be served by the equal protection clause is to ensure that ‘public sensibilities' grounded in the prejudice and unexamined stereotypes do not become enshrined as part of a policy of government.

The District of Columbia, as of 1986, has a Court of Appeals ruling in place that the D.C. nudity law does not apply to any body part but genitals.

In Florida, the Fifth District Court of Appeal in 2007 dismissed a woman's plea to go topless at Daytona Beach. However, the court dismissed the case without an opinion, thus, presenting an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

Nine foreign women were charged with prostitution after being arrested at the weekend on the Greek holiday island of Zakynthos, police have said.

Police sources in Athens said earlier the women involved were British and had been taking part in an oral sexual competition which was video recorded and was to be posted on the Internet.

However, a local police official on Zakynthos said the women were mostly from eastern Europe and were working in strip clubs at Laganas in the south of the Ionian island.

Six foreign and six Greek men, including two bar owners, were also charged with encouraging obscene behaviour.

Sex seems to be everywhere these days, yet the details of Max Mosley's privacy hearing have helped lift a veil on one type of sexual behaviour still shrouded in secrecy - sadomasochism.

Nobody knows how many people are involved in the "scene": a loose grouping of people across the country who enjoy an unorthodox - and under current laws potentially illegal - sexual lifestyle. However, one US study suggests 11% of women and 14% of men have engaged in BDSM - an abbreviated acronym for bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism and masochism - activities.

If those figures are translated to the UK, it could mean around four million people have tried BDSM. A smaller, but still substantial, number has chosen to make it a "lifestyle choice".

...Read full article

Fighting Freedom

Thanks to Alan
See full article from the Pandora's Blog

More and more papers are adding their voices to the consensus that spanking play is normal, common, and harmless. More articles on spanking have been posted in the last week than ever before. The Daily Record recently ran an advice column on how to seek out introducing healthy spanking play, and yesterday's Metro ran a story on Peter Jones, author of Confessions of a London Spank Daddy, which surely was only published because of the kink-curious climate provoked by the Mosley case, for all that it studiously avoids mentioning it. Spanking has never been so fascinating to the UK press.

The Mosley case was hugely depressing to me at the time, not least because I was busy stressing about the new violent porn legislation which was passed a few weeks ago, and which groups all over the UK fought for years to prevent, criminalising possession of images which appear to depict serious injury to the anus, breasts or genitals. I didn't write about this legislation, either, because when it was passed I felt so disaffected, so disenfranchised, that I just didn't know what to say. We'd campaigned and protested for months, and they'd passed it anyway.

The actual wording of the legislation is dangerously vague. Spanking and CP material isn't necessarily illegal, but given an unsympathetic judge armed with waffly, imprecise language, it could be. As a result, most of the individuals I know who own spanking porn haven't changed their habits since the law was passed; but the film producers are getting increasingly antsy. Several times this year, ideas I've had for shoots which would have been perfectly fine a few months previously were vetoed by nervous site owners who didn't want to risk it. Any caning on the breasts, for example, was deemed off-limits by one site owner unless it was so light as to be laughable. Face slapping was another no-no, although quite why when faces aren't a part of the body listed in the new legislation, I have no idea.

...Read full article

Nutter protest is growing over a swingers club in a quiet village, ahead of a licensing hearing which could secure the venue's future.

Villagers in Over, furious at the opening of Xscape Cambridge, claim the club:

• Has brought "kerb crawlers" onto village streets
• Attracts people whose sexual behaviour is outside society's normally accepted boundaries
• Leaves villagers at risk of overhearing "undesirable" conversations among clients
• Could put our children at risk

Co-owner Stewart Hobbs insists clients at the adults-only venue, which opened on the Norman Way Industrial Estate last month, have not caused problems in the village.

A retrospective planning application for a change of use to a private members club - including bar, dance floor and rooms for sexual activities - has been made. The application is expected to be decided next month after a South Cambridgeshire District Council licensing meeting on Friday, July 18. Xscape Cambridge has so far held a temporary event notice.

Nutters claim that strangers have been seen "lurking" near their homes and have raised the prospect of paedophiles frequenting the premises.

Over Parish Council has also objected, citing the presence of undesirable persons loitering outside unit 16A and the increase in kerb-crawling.

A fierce battle is brewing over plans to ban nudity at the picturesque San Onofre State Beach, which has been one of America's most famous naturist destinations for more than 40 years.

Ever since the Summer of Love in 1967, free-spirited visitors have let it all hang out at the secluded beauty spot, which stretches along several miles of Pacific coastline roughly half-way between Los Angeles and San Diego.

However, the arrival of a prudish new parks chief means the era of tolerance that has allowed them to sunbathe and surf without getting any nasty tan-lines is about to end. The acting park superintendent Rich Haydon, who arrived in the job this year, has announced that nudity at San Onofre is to be banned from Labour Day, which falls on the first weekend in September. His officers, who have been upset by reports of lewd behaviour on the beach, will arrest any revellers who refuse to cover up.

Signs explaining the change in policy have already been installed around the car park, and patrons are being verbally warned that their endless summer is to be rudely interrupted.

To the local naturist community, this represents an affront to civil liberties. A wide-ranging campaign of disobedience is being planned, and like most good American controversies, the affair is likely to end up in court.

On Thursday, we filed a lawsuit at Orange County Superior Court, and if necessary, we will fight this all the way up to Federal level, said R Allen Baylis of Friends of San Onofre Beach, a naturist action group. The law says that if you want to make a radical change to public policy, you have to seek input from the public. And they have totally failed to do that.

The case is throwing light on California's opaque laws regarding public nudity. State law prohibits nudity in all parks, except in authorised areas set aside for the purpose. But there are no such areas. Instead, San Onofre and a couple of other reserves are currently governed by the so-called Cahill policy, under which nudity is tolerated unless it elicits a complaint from the public.

A British woman caught having drunken sex on a beach in Dubai is to be charged with three offences, police said yesterday.

Michelle Palmer faces up to six years in jail if found guilty of having a sexual affair, public indecency and insulting a police officer.

Prosecutors have yet to decide what charges - if any - will be laid against Kent businessman Vince Acors, the man she romped with on the sand of Jumeirah beach after an all-day drinking binge.

Miss Palmer will face a Dubai court once she has been formally charged. She has already been sacked from her £28,000-a-year tax-free job with ITP Publishing.

A police officer spotted the couple having sex on the sand and let them off with a caution. But they ignored the warning and were arrested when the officer returned to the scene.

According to police sources, Miss Palmer launched an angry tirade at the policeman after being disturbed for a second time. She is alleged to have hurled abuse and tried to hit him with her high-heeled shoe before being restrained and taken to a cell

Sex outside marriage is illegal in the Islamic federation of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai police chief Major General Khamis Mattar al Mazeina said: 'The United Arab Emirates has certain traditions and values and is an Islamic country: It does not tolerate such behaviour and everyone must respect our culture as we respect theirs.

Police are so concerned about the city's drunken daytime parties that they are intending to mount a special 'brunch patrol' to catch misbehaving Britons. Undercover officers will be posted in hotel restaurants on Friday afternoons, a time when most local Muslims are at the mosque but the top hotels host lavish parties - and most of the fun occurs.

Dogging - where couples 'get it on' in public while others watch - has, according to Journal sources, hit the streets of Buncrana.

Dogging comes from the expression 'walking the dog'. It is a term that covers outdoor exhibitionism and what's described as 'car fun'.

Hotspots are already noted on the popular site as being Lisfannon beach and public toilets on the sea-front in Buncrana amongst a host of other locations across the county.

But Buncrana Sergeant John O'Keefe doesn't believe explicit public sex acts are going on. He said: We have had no reports of it here.

A man who ran a swingers club has admitted managing a brothel.

Brian Sheridan ran Hamshaws in Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath, with his wife Caroline.

Plans for a three day fetish festival on the ten-acre site were halted when police stopped it going ahead in 2006.

Sheridan and his wife ran the club where swingers met to have sex with each other, often as others watched. But residents complained about activities there and brought in their own private investigator to infiltrate the club.

Karen Holt, persecuting, said up to 60 men attended Pandora's Party nights held there every Wednesday night. The event was run by a prostitute who called herself Pandora, Hove Crown Court heard. She paid rent for the use of the club to Brian Sheridan and had two other prostitutes working with her.

The privte investigator said Pandora and her girls had group and individual sex with clients in the club's games room while other men watched. On a second visit a month later he saw a leather-clad man and woman build a torture rack in the club's main play area. The man was put face up on the rack and blindfolded before being whipped and given electric shocks as hot wax was poured on his chest. Other guests used rooms in the club's 'Wicked Chalet' for sex while being watched by male customers.

Sheridan and his wife, from Cobham, Surrey, were arrested and denied managing a brothel between November 2005 and June 2006. Sheridan changed his plea to guilty before his trial was due to start. The prosecution offered no evidence against Mrs Sheridan who was found not guilty on the direction of the judge.

Judge Cedric Joseph said he will almost certainly give Sheridan a ten-month prison sentence suspended for two years. However, he adjourned sentence until August 11 so that a decision can be taken on how much unpaid community work Sheridan must do.

CBS As we watched the premier I was surprised, relieved and even a little shocked to find that Swingtown was very well done.

I was intrigued that the show seemed to have gotten so many things right, from the clothing and the music of the 1970s, to the attitudes and motivations of newbies, vanillas and seasoned swingers.

The show, which throws an unsuspecting married couple into the burgeoning 1976 swinging scene of suburban Chicago seems to be written by people who definitely have some understanding of the lifestyle, because... I want to live next door to the Deckers.

...Read the full article

A municipal court judge held off on deciding whether or not the city of Duncanville has violated the US Constitution with its ordinance banning sex clubs within the city.

Back in May, the city felt compelled to issue the ordinance when it became apparent a particular residence was operating as a place for swingers.

The attorney representing the Cherry Pitt, Edward Klein has said the city shouldn’t regulate private activities in a private home. The city counters, and says in its original ordinance, that the Cherry Pit crosses the line from public to private by advertising itself online

Also, they say it's a "public nusiance."

The municipal judge, Judge Kent Trayler, could issue his decision as early as July 8th.

Scots sending sexually explicit e-mails were warned last night that they could be accused of being a sex offender.

As part of the biggest overhaul of sex offences in Scotland, a new statutory offence of "communicating indecently" will criminalise those who send malicious and unwanted sexually offensive e-mails and texts, as well as other verbal and written messages.

A new bill unveiled contains proposals for a raft of other new offences, covering areas such as indecent exposure and spiking drinks for the purpose of having sex.

The proposals are based on recommendations in a report published last December by the Scottish Law Commission. It had been commissioned in 2004 to examine the law on rape and other sexual offences.

Age of Consent

However, ministers have turned down a commission proposal to decriminalise all consenting sex between youngsters aged 13 to 15.

BDSM

The new legislation rejected a proposal to decriminalise consensual adult sexual violence. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but when both parties are willing, where's the harm? For the government, it was the fear that such a move might offer some form of legal escape to rapists and those who commit domestic violence. It's a powerful argument, but a misguided one. These are instances in which the state simply should not meddle.

Sex tourism

Anyone from Scotland who travels abroad and has sex with someone under the age of 16 can currently only be prosecuted on their return if the intercourse was also illegal in the foreign country.

Indecent communication

THE bill defines the new offence of indecent communication as occurring when a person intentionally delivers a sexual message to another person.

The offence requires that the person sends the communication to obtain sexual gratification, or to humiliate, distress or alarm the recipient. The communication can be a word in someone's ear, a page from a pornographic magazine, or an e-mail or text.

Someone who sends an offensive e-mail to a group of colleagues, friends and other people could be breaking this new law.

However, the Crown would have to prove that the purpose of sending the e-mail had been malicious, or that the sender had done it for a sexual "thrill".

Anyone found guilty of indecent communication faces a maximum ten-year jail sentence.

Public indecency

THE offence of public indecency, which can include "flashing", streaking and urinating in public, already exists. But the government explicitly wants to criminalise anyone who intentionally exposes their genitals in a sexual manner to another person with the intention of causing alarm or distress, or being "reckless" as to whether alarm or distress may be caused.

The new offence also criminalises sexual exposure in someone's home. The aim is to make it clear such behaviour is a sex crime completely separate to someone causing offence by, for example, sunbathing naked in a public park. The Scottish Law Commission, which first proposed the move, reasoned that indecent exposure was in many ways similar to a sexual assault.

A swinger's club has opened for business in a Cambridgeshire village.

The Norman Way Industrial Estate in Over is now host to Xscape Cambridge, which describes itself as "Cambridgeshire's only adult venue".

Co-owner Stewart Hobbs told the News the venue was packed out for its first night on Saturday: It is people from every walk of life. I wouldn't like to say what occupations, because it goes to the very top. It goes from solicitors to roadworkers.

But some residents of Over are inevitably worried. The village's vicar, the Rev Nutter Malcolm Raby said: From a Christian point of view, it is not something I would agree with. Traditional Christian values would hold the importance of marriage - two people in a mature relationship.

Xscape Cambridge advertises itself as over-25s only. Anyone wanting to visit the club must register for membership and pay an entrance fee. The fee is £35 for single males, £25 for couples and £5 for single females.

Hobbs told the News Cambridgeshire police are aware of the club and have paid a visit. The club has also been granted an interim licence by South Cambridgeshire District Council for drinks and entertainment.

Hobbs said: There has been a meeting of the industrial estate committee and they are not worried about it.

The reality of his swinging club is far from the image some people have, Hobbs believes. He said: 80% of it is socialising. About 96% of the people are couples. It is totally consenting adults and they come from the higher echelons.

City code enforcement officials have ordered a controversial underground swingers club to stop hosting sexually themed parties by the end of Thursday or face fines of up to $250 a day.

Melbourne officials and an irritated landlord want to close the Hunt Club which is based inside a house in the rustic Oak Groves subdivision, nestled among acre-lot estates, horse stables and backyard fish ponds.

Club operators Richard Spalding and Kirsi Page face $250 daily code enforcement fines if they host swingers' parties after Thursday.

Recent examples of their events have been Naughty Girls, Ice Cream and High Heels Social, a pajama party and a paper-mask masquerade, according to various Web sites.

In a Tuesday e-mail to Code Enforcement Administrator Dan Porsi, Page contended that her club is a private group, not a business, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported. She stated that Melbourne officials were making up ridiculous fines and singling out a few people to persecute. Fully grown adults will not tolerate being told who they can and cannot have sex with. Twisting existing laws or making up new ones to punish people for their sex lives is not only arrogant and misguided, but also corrupt in the sense that you are using your political position to impose your favored sexual practices on someone else.

Thousands of Indians to have joined online partner swapping clubs and communities that have sprung in the past few years.

Middle-class Indians are being welcomed into the world of permissiveness and free sex by the spread of Internet in India.

The Internet has actually broken the barriers... Earlier, swinging, like other non-conformist sexual activities, was confined to the rich and fashionable circles. These were mostly private and exclusive rendezvous conducted through a network of friends, says Sanjay Sahay, a Bangalore-based consultant on Internet behavioural science: Internet has brought that opportunity out to the urban middle class..." Today, these activities include married, committed couples, engaging in sexual activity with another couple, multiple couples, or a single individual.

Swap clubs membership can be easily obtained by registering on the Net. There are several popular swinger community websites such as locanto.in, fropper.com and couplefishing.com that are available to Indians today. At any given point, these sites carry 10 to 20 advertisements of people looking out for couples interested in a rendezvous.

The advertisements are usually unambiguous and inviting, and clear about choice of mates and sexual preference. Wanted couples for swapping. - 36 (Haryana): We are a beautiful couple age 36 & 29 in Delhi. Any other couples want some fun and enjoyment, please contact us. Some even insist on activities being "non-criminal", "disease-free" as a condition to meet and engage. After an advertisement is answered, photos and emails are exchanged to develop familiarity.

Most of the websites also have guides for interested couples, as they try to break the ice and get around to the actual act.

CBS has definitely been selling the sexy sizzle on its new '70s-set drama Swingtown.

Swingtown is set in a Chicago suburb in 1976. It revolves around several couples who at times partake in partner swapping and drug use.

Cast member Lana Parrilla and creator Mike Kelley say Swingtown, despite the hype, is much more than people having sex.

Sex sells, what can you say, and they would be remiss not to push that, Kelley told The News. I just hope people who come for the prurient reasons aren't disappointed. There's actually a warm heart beating in this.

CBS is banking on raciness getting people to watch during the slow summer. The show started out targeted for HBO, which passed because it had similar sexy series. Showtime also passed because of projects in the works, after which it landed at CBS. Kelley reworked the show a little and the series ended up in the summer lineup.

No doubt CBS will draw some barbs from watchdog groups.

A popular community-based website in the west of Ireland was forced to cease operating last week in the fallout that followed the publication of an inflammatory article in a local newpaper attacking alleged gay ‘perverts’.

The article, penned by Tony Geraghty, editor and proprietor of local freesheet, the Mayo Echo, provoked widespread debate on Irish web forums. This quite startling front-page article, which reads like a bad Onion spoof, told the story of a recreational area in Castlebar, Co Mayo being transformed into a latter day Sodom, with hundreds of men visiting on a weekly basis to have anonymous sex with strangers, propositioning young boys, and getting their rocks off whilst thumbing through children’s magazines. Perhaps most horrifying, the article described ‘drooling perverts getting off whilst watching children’ playing at an adjacent playground.

Castlebar.ie was a tremendously popular local website, receiving as many as three million hits per month - or at least it did up until last Saturday, when the site announced on its main page that it had been ‘forced to cease operation after more than 10 years of publication [due to] threats of legal action received from a commercial publication based in Castlebar’, which it identified as the Mayo Echo. Editor Geraghty had objected to critcism of his article, and him, on the site’s very active forum. Indeed, an email from Mr Geraghty, previously available on Castlebar.ie, read:

I would like to express my utter disgust at postings placed on your website www.castlebar.ie on the ‘Online Forum’… There is lengthy discussion of an article published in the Mayo Echo this week, and some of the comments are completely unacceptable, untrue, and completely defamatory to myself…

The offending posts were removed, and, it is understood that the website issued an ‘unreserved and unequivocal apology’ - the first time in its history it had done so. But the unremitting cloud of legal threats finally forced that site administrator’s hand into shutting the site down entirely.

...Read full article

A Brisbane swingers club has asked the City Council for official approval as a nightclub venue.

Couples International runs partner-swapping nights at an industrial estate in Woolloongabba.

The Brisbane City Council says the application is controversial, but Councillor Helen Abrahams says there have been no complaints lodged so far: Council cannot make a determination on the ethic grounds or the moral grounds of a swingers club. They have to make it on, this is a club, a nightclub, and what are the impacts of that nightclub ... on the local residents?

Club owner Brian Horn says he has met Council guidelines.

The lifestyle has become more accepted, he said.

If approved, the club would be Queensland's first official swingers club.

The Gloucester police are taking a keen interest in open air sex around Birdlip. They have assigned a sympathetic ear to the case and are looking solutions that meet the needs of all interested parties.

The police summarise the situation:

There has been an identified problem at Barrow Wake, Crickley Hill and at Shab Hill, Birdlip, Gloucestershire for many years.

It is a cruising spot and guys do go there for sex but that is not the only activity. There is heterosexual and group sex interest and activity also. The dogging websites show us this. It is a real mix of a public sex environment not unique to one community; as well as working land, a rural residential area and much loved beauty spot for walkers.

Certainly there has been a perceived problem for at least five years and residents say that activity has increased over the last few years. This could be as a result of Internet sites (for example "dogging" sites) that advertise it. Our intelligence and experience indicates that people travel long distances from all over the country to use the site as a public sex environment. I think this has been a consequence of the Internet as an information medium for persons with this interest.

The issue has been looked at on several occasions, not only by the Police but also in Partnership with other Agencies. Previous methods of dealing with the issue had been focused on deterrent rather than engagement and education of those visiting the area. What we are trying to do now is to bring some improvement to the area through consultation, identifying and addressing specific problems in partnership

Police have summarised the complaints they receive:

"Dogging", males seen exposing themselves, sex associated litter, damage to trees. There is one area that is known as the condom tree (no explanation needed really). There are also apparent ligatures where people are tied up. There is also anti social behaviour with vehicles and local residents feeling generally intimidated. Locals report their families being propositioned and followed up driveways to their residences.

One of the first things we wanted to do with our fresh look was identify what the behaviour was that was of issue. From this exercise we identified that not only was it activity of a sexual nature that was of concern, but the litter at the location for example condoms, sexual magazines, clothing both male and female garments, lubricant containers, packaging. Then there is fly tipping of both residential and commercial waste, graffiti, including of a Homophobic nature, criminal damage.

The key messages that the police would like to get across:

We want people using the site as a public sex environment to consider their own behaviour and actions at the site, not only with regard to the environment but also in relation to residents, farmers and other site users. The litter problem, for example, considerably hardens attitudes and ultimately if people don't self regulate the law has to take its course. We won't transform a public sex environment from being one to not being one overnight but we can try to ensure a positive environment and encourage a responsible approach to behaviour and conduct that impacts upon others.

We want all users to be safe.

We want to work with all people using the site to bring about positive change and assist with and support actions to that end.

The Roman Catholic Church is opposing a nudist beach festival in Sicily billed as a “celebration of nudity” over fears of an invasion of naked sunbathers.

The Church complained after the mayor of Cattolica Eraclea, the village nearest to the planned festival on Capo Bianco recently issued a decree allowing free use of Capo Bianco by lovers of nude sunbathing.

But Father Giuseppe Miliziano, the parish priest, said: The beach belongs to the state, not to the local council. If the state decided to allow people to take their clothes off, there is not much I could do about it. But as far as I am aware no such authorisation has been issued.

Nude sunbathing is illegal in Italy but a few naturist beaches are authorised by councils if they are patrolled by naturist associations.

The Capo Bianco festival, due to take place between May 23 and May 25, is organised by the Italian Naturist Federation, based in Turin, and the Sicilian Naturist Association. The beach is also near Agrigento and the ruins of Eraclea Minoa.

It's been the center of nutter controversy for months. Now the Duncanville City Council thinks it has a way to halt activity at the Cherry Pit "swingers" club.

Council members changed the wording of a city ordinance to redefine a "sex club."

Such clubs are banned from the entire city except for an area off Highway 67.

The council modified the definition of "sex club" to include the types of sexual behavior prohibited in clubs where people are paying to attend.

They say the Cherry Pit — which operates in a house in a residential neighborhood — is in violation of at least three city ordinances. The council is moving closer to holding a hearing so they'll be able to shut the club down, but still let the homeowners remain.

An apparent swingers' sex club that has 'outraged' nearby nutters in a Central Florida neighborhood has been ordered to shut down in two weeks.

Groups of people interested in having sex with multiple partners have recently migrated to a large home in Oak Groves, Brevard County.

The home, called The Hunt Club, touts on its Web site group buffet-style dining, group rooms, a stage and dancing pole, swimming pool, and "The Pink Cauldron," a five-person hot tub.

After complaints from nutters prompted police to investigate the home, the city issued the Hunt Club a cease and desist letter.

The city determined the house is being used as a business in a residential neighborhood -- which is against city code.

Richard Spaulding, who lives in the controversial house, said he is doing nothing wrong and his neighbors are making a fuss over nothing: We are not doing anything illegal and we are just having a party, that is it. Chances are because of them and all of the attention they brought on us, we won't probably be able to do (this) much longer or any longer.

Gary Nalder gave a short answer to the question of why he chose to convert a photography studio in Orange to an underground swingers club.

Sex sells, he said with a smile.

Nalder obtained a Sexually-Orientated Business License from the city in 2004 indicating he planned to run a nude and semi-nude photography studio at 1548 N. Brian St. Instead, the photography studio turned into Club Amnesty, which held weekly sex parties for couples for more than three years.

City officials recently cited Nalder for operating without a proper business license and violating convenient city and fire code violations.

Nalder said They want us to get a conditional use license or permit, which means that it has to go through the council, through a committee, through police and fire, the city attorney’s office, planning and business license. I think it’s going to be impossible.

City Attorney David DeBerry said the club would only need a conditional use permit to allow patrons to bring in alcohol: If you are going to have alcohol, whether it’s brought in by patrons or you sell it, you need an alcohol license. All alcohol licenses, in turn, require a conditional use permit from the city.

Nalder said he planned to relocate the club elsewhere in 2009.

The swingers club on Union Street, Schenectady, New York State, may soon be shutting down. Owner Robert Alexson is putting the building up for sale.

Alexson said his decision to sell has nothing to do with his run-ins with city officials over the parties he hosts where couples can swap partners for sex. The city had told him he must move his parties out of the residential neighborhood on Union Street by the end of October, but he continued to party all winter without any apparent repercussions.

Alexson has insisted for years that the city cannot legally stop him from running the parties: What I do in the privacy of my own house is none of their business.

City officials disagree, but Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said he was pleased by the news that Alexson would be shutting himself down.

Van Norden added that Alexson’s swinger parties, once a booming business that Alexson said brought in more than a thousand dollars each weekend, seem to have died down since the city told him to cease and desist: He’s not advertising parties anymore. He has advertised three bus trips. It looked like it was really drying up.

Nutters in a North Devon village have expressed anger at a local businessman's plans to open a swingers' club.

Later this month Roger Stanbury is launching Club Vanilla, a monthly adult party in a converted barn on his caravan park in Horsewell, Devon, complete with Jacuzzi, dance floor and "play areas".

For a £45 entrance fee, adventurous couples can enjoy a cocktail and watch an "exotic floor show", avail themselves of free condoms and make use of large double beds in public rooms. Its website adds: There's no need to be nervous, have a relaxing cocktail and speak to our friendly bar staff who will put you at ease.

Far from being at ease, however, many of Stanbury's neighbours in the rural village and nearby Bishops Tawton are predictably furious.

Stanbury has a licence allowing him to hold 12 late-night events every year. He is now inviting swingers to enjoy having fun with other couples aged over 21 at the launch on April 26: This is for consenting adult couples and is not bothering anyone. It's part of a nice and quiet evening at a nice and quiet adult venue.

North Devon council said it was powerless to stop the club since there are no restrictions on the licence.

Update: For Sale

1st February 2009. See article from metro.co.uk

A farm which converted one of its barns into a swingers club is up for sale, estate agents said today.

Horswell Farm is on the market and includes "Club Vanilla", a barn that was converted to a venue for couples who swap sexual partners.

The property, near the village of Bishops Tawton in Devon, is on sale for £650,000 through agents Nancekivell and Co who describe the club as a "licensed entertainment venue" including a kitchen area, store room, insulated walls and central heating.

A Wollongong sex-on-premises venue for gays, bisexuals, swingers and straight-identifying men has closed after less than a month of business.

The Men’s Social Club proprietor, Allan Denis, blames the Illawarra Mercury newspaper for the negative publicity generated by an article that featured a photograph of the premises.

Denis told Evolution Online he was forced to close the club after a significant drop in clientele and an avalanche of homophobic threats.

Denis says he had specified the ‘discreet’ nature of the venue in advertisements with the Mercury, but fears his clientele’s anonymity became compromised by the photograph’s publication: The ad was very specific, it said [that we provide a] ‘discreet’, safe, secure environment. Discreet’s not just a word, it’s a way of life. I figured that because I was a client of them, they would respect that. You take that away, you ruin the club, and that’s exactly what they did - even though I was paying them to run this ad for about four months.

The day after the article went to print, Denis claims the club received over a hundred phone threats, calling him and his staff ‘fucking faggots’ who will ‘burn in hell.’ Young passers-by heckled and threw eggs at the venue. Such actions persisted until Denis closed the venue on February 29.

Denis says only two patrons returned the day after the article went to print, with four on the weekend, as compared to the average of 40 patrons per day in the prior weeks.

The venue had been approved as a ‘sex-on-premises establishment’ under Wollongong City Council’s ‘Sex Industry Development Control Plan’ devised September 2005. The plan specifies that an establishment earns an income by charging fees for patrons to use designated areas to have casual sex with one another. The plan also specifies the importance of discretion for patrons.

Community reaction may be put down to an ‘aesthetic of disgust’ surrounding sex venues, according to Penny Crofts, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Technology Sydney. In her conference paper at a 2006 University of Melbourne conference, ‘Visual Contamination: Disgust and the regulation of brothels’, Crofts addressed the stigmas associated with brothels, which are applicable to all sex venues. Crofts says brothels trigger disgust by reminding people of sex outside of love, the ‘perceived immorality’ of the practices, and the threat of corrupting children.

SwingFest 2008; the world’s largest swingers party and swinger lifestyle convention will be hosted by adult megastar Mary Carey and take place July 31 to Aug. 3, 2008 at the beautiful beachside Westin Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, Florida. The 4 day event is $300 USD per couple and includes buffet meals throughout the day, open bars in the evening, goody-bag, daily seminars, contest admissions, giveaways, entrance to wild parties.

Lawrence G. Walters will present Legal Issues Affecting Swingers Clubs, a seminar scheduled on August 2. The seminar will offer an overview of the legal issues affecting the swinger lifestyle community, including zoning and licensing laws, criminal statutes, nuisance abatement ordinances, and private civil actions.

Few will protest against the latest victory for women's rights. Ladies in Copenhagen will now be allowed to swim and walk around topless in public pools.

The decision is the result of a year-long campaign by a pressure group, the Topless Front, which says women should be treated the same as bare-chested men.

Campaign leader Astrid Vang, 20, who took her shirt off with others to protest at a leisure centre at Christmas, said: We women would like to decide by ourselves when our breasts should be sexual and when not. In swimming pools they should not and that is why the breasts should not be covered - We will bathe topless just like men.

In Copenhagen yesterday, the city's Culture and Leisure Committee voted overwhelmingly to allow topless bathing.

Frank Hedegaard, of the Socialist People's Party, said: I cannot understand what some people find so offensive about women's breasts. This decision is important in order to stop the idea that women's bodies are only sex objects.

After four years of processing subscription payments for Going Natural magazine, PayPal has abruptly cancelled service to its publisher, the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN).

Attempts to get an explanation as to how the magazine violates PayPal's "acceptable use" policy have been met with generic e-mails from faceless and implacable customer-service personnel. Those e-mails falsely claim the magazine is pornographic, and sells sexually oriented goods or services involving minors or services for which the purpose is to facilitate meetings for sexually oriented activities.

Going Natural magazine is devoted to naturism (or nudism), a social movement over a hundred years old and unrelated to sexual activity.

The FCN is not the first naturist organization to be rejected by PayPal, which arbitrarily denies service to persons or organizations it alone deems socially unacceptable.

PayPal's decision about Going Natural and its claims about the FCN are unfounded embellishments born of ignorance, notes Judy Williams, Government Affairs Director for the FCN.

Dutch council officials will permit gay sex in public areas but fine dog owners who let their pets off the leash in Amsterdam's Vondelpark.

Paul van Grieken, an Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of the city, has startled many Amsterdammers, despite their famously liberal attitudes, with plans to allow public sex as part of this summer's new rules of conduct for the country's best-known park.

Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?, he said.

The park's rose garden has become famous as a trysting spot for gay men looking for uncomplicated sexual encounters. Mr van Grieken stresses that tolerance to "cruising" gays, aimed at protecting homosexuals from violence, will have "strict rules attached".

Thus, condoms must always be cleared away, it must never take place in the neighbourhood of children's playgrounds and the sex must be restricted to the evening and night-time, he said.

The new park rules have the blessing of the Dutch police, who have urged all Dutch parks to follow Amsterdam's lead.

The North Carolina city of Lenoir has banned an alleged swingers club from operating in its current location.

Earlier this week nutters raised concerns about the building’s proximity to several churches. City officials decided to look into whether the club would be considered an adult business, which would restrict where it can operate.

As the city investigated, the fire marshal shut the building down supposedly because of a number of fire code violations. Then the Western Carolina Friends club, which is believed to cater to swingers, was dealt another blow when the city determined that it did indeed meet the definition of an adult business, the Lenoir city manager said.

City Manager Lane Bailey said city ordinances strictly forbid adult businesses from operating near churches, so even when the building meets fire codes, the club still cannot operate there.

City workers posted “notice of violation” signs across the property stating the club must cease activities immediately or be fined $50 a day.

A nutter from the church across the street saw the notice and shouted, Hallelujah!

A swingers' club is operating four nights a week out of a converted garage without planning approval.

Couples International, with four bedrooms and a bondage area, opened at 5 Holden St, Woolloongabba in August 2006.

In November last year club owners Bryan and Leesa Horn submitted an application for a BYO nightclub-style venue after a visit from Brisbane City Council.

If the council does approve the club, the Horns said it would be a first for Queensland.

Despite their failure to lodge a development application until November, the Horns said they would rather operate in a regulated environment: We’re keen to make a real success of the business and to do that you need the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.

The Horns won’t face objections from their immediate neighbours, who said the club’s late-night hours helped reduce property damage at night and traffic congestion during the day.

The couple argued the club enhanced relationships for confident and self-assured couples by providing a spark.

Organisers of National Fetish Day had revealed that MP Ronnie Campbell had promised to wear purple to support a day of awareness.

Ronnie Campbell Is he? Isn't he?

But the MP for Blyth Valley, Northumberland, withdrew his backing after the Sunday Sun explained the kinky connotations of the word “fetish” which he was supposedly not aware of.

Campbell revealed he thought “fetish” was just another word for “worry” instead of a description of people who get their kicks in unusual ways.

When we told him, Campbell said: Oh my God almighty, my God, is that what a fetish is? I thought a fetish was a worry, like worrying about backing the right horse.

When we first spoke to Campbell about National Fetish Day he said: I think my secretary must have mentioned this. I have no problem with it and I am happy to show my support. I have a purple tie and a purple shirt so I will be able to wear their colours.

Are they? Aren't they?

National Fetish Day is on the 21st January.

Using the tag line of “Perverts Wear Purple those that support this day will be wearing about their person something that is purple, like a shirt, a tie, a skirt, a hair band.

The colour purple was chosen because of its heavy use in BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism) circles.

Today's National Fetish Day is part of a campaign against a law to criminalise the possession of extreme pornography which threatens the BDSM community.

The City of Duncanville has countersued the host of a neighborhood swingers club, continuing a legal battle that began when the city passed an ordinance aimed at shuttering the sex parties for good.

The Dallas suburb wants a judge to order Jim Trulock to stop the weekend gatherings at his home, which attract upward of 100 guests and transform his house into "The Cherry Pit."

The city's lawsuit alleges that The Cherry Pit poses a risk to public health by not having any measures or policy in place to safeguard against the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The suit also alleges that the club has harmed the city's image and lowered property values.

Thought you guys may be interested..... the idea seems to be gathering speed and support on the web.... the tagline this year is 'perverts wear purple'.... anyone supportive of the idea can wear purple to some degree... its a deniable colour...but its also an identifier.... is he? isn't she?

Back in October 2007, a discussion was started on an Informed Consent website forum board as to whether ‘fetish’ should be allowed to have a National Day, considering that so many other causes and/or beliefs were celebrated with their own National Day.

People decided that the vision of a National Fetish Day was something that could really happen. A date was chosen that gave enough time to spread the word of what the day stood for. The next big problem was as to how people with a fetish could celebrate their ideas and life choices; a slogan was born, “Perverts Wear Purple”. Why purple? Purple is a colour that is heavily represented in BDSM/fet art, style and clothing. Purple is a colour that is still unusual enough to be different yet common enough to be deniable... so no-one wearing purple needs to be scared they are automatically outing themselves. Finally, it sounds good in a catchy slogan!

Why should we do anything in particular on this day? We often hear the word ‘community’ used when speaking of BDSM and fetish. An open-minded and understanding community that is inclusive to all. ‘We’ may claim to be inclusive to all but do others understand what we do and enjoy? Many, yes. Some, no. The British government is currently legislating to criminalise the possession of images - even if the pictures are of consenting fun and no-one was harmed.

By joining this fun ‘National Fetish Day – Perverts Wear Purple’ event, you as an individual will be joined by fellow community people all over the country in saying ‘It’s ok to enjoy what I enjoy’ without damaging your ‘vanilla’ identity or integrity.

So imagine it. You're harming no-one by wearing an item of purple clothing on this day and you smile to yourself whenever you think *why* you're wearing it...BUT...what will run through your mind when you see someone else wearing a purple item of clothing? Imagine this happening across the country at the same time on the same day. Everyone who contributed to the threads, everyone who secretly read it on websites, everyone who heard about the idea and thought it would be a bit of fun. All these perverts, all over, all doing the same thing at the same time for the same reason.

No, this simple act *isn't* going to change the world or laws or social way of thinking. However, I genuinely believe that it might make participants (or even those that have heard but don't join in) think about this sub-culture, what it is, what it means to us and feel a slight bit of unity.

Enjoy and be proud, it’s ok to be you!