Folsom Street Fair: More than Just Kink and Curiosity

By Josie Valderrama, Winter 2009

Folsom Street Fair, San Francisco’s leather subculture street event, is a popular and highly suggested topic for the cultural immersion papers required by many first-year classes at Alliant. Yet little is offered in the way of education in Alliant’s official curriculum about bondage, discipline/dominance and submission/sadomasochism (BDSM) and kink issues related to clinical psychology. Many in the BDSM lifestyle also practice polyamory, which is engaging in non-monogamous relationships with the consent and awareness of all parties.

Keely Kolmes, a graduate of CSPP whose dissertation focused on therapist bias against clients involved in BDSM, believes more education and awareness around kink culture is essential for future clinicians. “When I started at CSPP,” Kolmes said, “I was worried that bringing my outside knowledge into the classroom meant that people would make assumptions about me and my sexuality.”

“When I did find the courage to speak up about alternative sexual practices,” Kolmes said, “some professors thought I was referring to domestic violence or I that I was speaking about behaviors that were inherently unhealthy or caused by childhood trauma. These experiences, while unsettling, made me feel more determined to pursue the topic in my research and to do what I could to educate other psychologists.”

Kolmes pointed out that the Folsom Street Fair may be off-putting or confusing to the uninitiated because the lifestyle’s focus on safety and consensuality through detailed negotiation between play partners and the use of “safe words” may not be readily apparent when watching a scene. She recommended that students attending Folsom Street Fair gain greater perspective by also attending one of the many local BDSM workshops available or reading up on the lifestyle.

A group for Bay Area graduate students and licensed clinicians who offer kink and poly-aware services and who identify as kinky or poly themselves is being organized by Kolmes. The group will provide networking, mentoring, and consultation and will be a safe space to be “out” while developing your professional identity. More information is available at http://snurl.com/ss0uy or by contacting Kolmes at 415-501-9098 or drkkolmes@gmail.com.