As most of you know, Elizabeth has proposed a panel for SXSW Interactive 2008 called Pink Ghetto Blasters: Destigmatizing Sex via Online Community Building which she'll moderate with me, Lux Nightmare, Violet Blue, and Rachel Kramer Bussel as panel members. The online voting process is now drawing to a close; it ends Friday, September 21 at 11:59 PM, Central Time, so as of this writing, that gives us a little less than 36 hours to get all our friends to vote for us. Voting is easy; just go to the link for the panel above, go through a quick registration process, and give us five stars. That's all.

One of the principles behind Sex in the Public Square is that by putting the sexual aspects of our lives off-limits and keeping discussion of them “private,” we lose a valuable component of democracy. The category “NSFW” diminishes us as individuals and as a society because large chunks of both are kept in the closet. In short, we're all about busting the Pink Ghetto, and this panel is a great way to get some of the sharpest minds in the field together to get beyond the basics and into the practical matters of what the real implications of fencing sex off from the rest of society are. This is a great opportunity for us, and we hope that as many of you as possible will give us your support.

As the late, great Al Capone said, “Vote early, and vote often.” I also recommend that you put in a vote for Lisa Vandever, the founder of Cinekink, and her panel, The Porn Police: Know the Rules. Besides having had to maneuver through the law just because of having to manage Cinekink, Lisa's friends with Barbara Nitke, who's one of the best erotic photographers in the business, and has fought one of the most important battles for erotic free speech on the internet. In addition, Lisa's husband is a lawyer, so any panel she does on the subject is going to be smart and comprehensive.

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Blog: Literate Perversions

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then finally y