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Just wrapped a week in Melbourne- so I’ll be dedicating this newsletter to news and insights from the land of Down Under
Circling back to the Middle Circle concept I shared in my September newsletter, I am realizing how wide the Middle Circle is. This week in Melbourne I joined a Poly Putlock (on a Tuesday at 1pm!! So much to learn from these Australians) and met some amazing sexy consent geeks. We were able to drop in so quickly and within 30min I found myself making “slut” bead bracelets, answering vulnerable question cards, and geeking out on sex and ADHD. I am dreaming of a future where we have a Bloom chat connecting people with communities and events across the world.
Currently, in Melbourne, sex parties take place in official brothel venues. In 3 weeks, once the decriminalization of sex work is complete, any venue could host sex parties. When talking about this with Piper, who’s leading a sexy community in Melbourne, I had two :jaw drop: moments, when I discovered:
1/ The venue supplies mattresses, sheets, and safer sex supplies
2/ The venue sells alcohol on premise
Read more about the decriminalization of sex work in Victoria.
When I told people in Australia I work from Bloom, they referred me to Troye Sivan’s single “Bloom” (2018). According to Troye “(Bloom) is about bottoming. And the lyric is ‘I bloom just for you. People took that and ran [with it] — like, [in] the consciousness of gay people I’m some crazy power bottom or something, which is just not the case. And I just wanted to put that out there.” check out the full podcast.
A lesbian organization, The Lesbian Action Group, filed a request so that only “same-sex attracted, biological women” could attend their events, effectively excluding transgender or bisexual women.
A few weeks ago, the Australia’s Human Rights Commission (AHRC) rejected the request, preventing them from hosting “lesbian-born female” events. The verdict read: “The commissioner submits that the word ‘sex’ is not a biological concept referring to whether a person at birth had male or female physical traits. Nor is it a binary concept, limited to the ‘male’ or ‘female’ sex” and that the exemption could lead to further exclusion of and discrimination against transgender women.
The World Wide Sex Tech Community headquarters is in Melbourne. I caught up with Bryony Cole from SexTech School. Bryony’s mission is to help sex-tech entrepreneurs figure out the business parts of their company. The next SexTech cohort is launching next month, so if you want to take your idea to market- get on the list.
Thoughts? Feedback? Feelings?
contact me anytime: noa@bloomcommunity.com
Noa Elan
Community Builder | Bloom
