Bren Ryder

I just realized that I’m living my dream.

Normally I love Eight. It’s my lucky number, actually. But, today I hate eight. Proposition 8 in California, USA, that is. That’s the proposition that will make Ellen and Portia’s marriage no longer legal. Well, you know, and a bunch of other lovely dykes, too.

This month I was working at the election here in Canada and I was working side by side with a weird little man who has dual citizenship. He had a US absentee ballot that he showed me. I’m fairly unfamiliar with the details of American politics, so it was interesting to see all the people and leadership positions that people will be voting for. Then, I was shocked when I came across the Proposition area and saw that people were voting to reverse the decision to make gay marriage legal in California - or not. I think the thing that shocked me the most was that this issue is up for anybody and everybody to vote on.

Here in Canada marriage is legal for any two humans no matter what their gender. Marriage between a “man and a woman” was deemed unconstitutional by the courts and then it was up to the elected representatives to vote on removing gender from the marriage equation. But, there was no general vote. When the government changed power there were threats of such a vote, but nothing came of it and now the issue is essentially closed.

There were also Propositions about making it legal for chicken to stretch their legs and budget approvals for schools or something like that. Aren’t there experts who can determine whether or not it’s important for chickens to stretch their legs. Why does everyone have to vote for it? Not everyone is educated about the value of the quality of life of poultry and how that benefits our world. And I’m not so sure the descriptive paragraph on the ballot is going to suffice.

That’s where the media comes in. Right now, people are raising money, making commercials and spreading the word about the rights of queers and chickens alike. Bloggers are writing to bring awareness of this Proposition to educate Californians and persuade them to Vote No on 8. Eight bloggers (www.8against8.com) got together to raise money and exceeded their goal of raising $8000.

Since I appreciate my right to choose not to get married, I wanted to help anyway I could to fight this ridiculous proposition. I donated some Good Dyke Porn DVD’s to the bloggers to help them raise money. Check out their blogs to see how you can help in the final run the election: Grace the Spot, Hahn at Home, The Lesbian Lifestyle, Dorothy Surrenders, Pam’s House Blend, Sugarbutch Chronicles, this girl called automatic win, and Lesbiatopia.

Also fighting the good fight is The Crash Pad Series. They’re donating all their membership sign-ups TODAY to the cause. As an affiliate who gets a cut when someone signs up through me, I have agreed to donate my share for this day. It’s for one day only so sign up now and see hot dyke porn while saving the world from ignorant voters.

Good luck California!

This week my myspace account was deleted because I had a link to GoodDykePorn.com - my baby, my life, my website. The only reason I was on myspace was to let the world know that this site exists. I admit that I didn’t read the Terms of Service close enough and it does specifically say that links to an adult website are prohibited. I would have been happy to de-link the site, but, oh no, they had to go and delete the whole thing and all 800 of my new best friends.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me - being deleted from a mainstream community site.  On Facebook they deleted my Bren Ryder fan page and the Good Dyke Porn group. Except they don’t specifically say they you can’t link to an adult site and, in fact, they take no responsibility for 3rd party links. Their reason was that they claimed I had “obscene content” on the pages.

The frustrating part is that the only thing I’m guilty of is linking to the front page of my porn site. The page that says, “if you haven’t figured it out already, this is a porn site, if you’re under-age then you know that you’re not allowed to be here, so go play somewhere else, but if you are of an appropriate age, there’s explicit material here, so proceed with that knowledge”. I’m paraphrasing a little. It’s the link that’s evil, apparently, because there is/was no content on any of my community pages: no pictures of models, no nudity, no sex. What makes it so obscene? The words themselves: Dyke Porn!

It’s important to me to be really upfront about what I do. I make dyke porn - i.e. empowered women who love women share their sex on camera.  DYKE PORN. But the dominant society seems to think that those two words are bad. Perhaps if I had a website called GayLadiesDoingNudgeNudgeWinkWink.com then I wouldn’t get in trouble so frequently. But that’s entirely contrary to my objective. I want people to know that what they’re getting is sexually explicit material - PORN, by authentic queer women - DYKES. There’s no ambiguity here. If you click that link you know where you’re going.

It’s hard to fight against the past wrongs of slimeballs who have shaped the porn industry’s reputation to be what it is today: degrating, sneaky, pop-ups you didn’t intend to find, money hungry abusers and other sad facts that people assume applies to anyone who produces porn. I have to use special adult web hosting. I can’t use paypal, ebay, google ads, newsletter services, shopping carts, even certain banks won’t deal with my company.

Guess what? There is nothing wrong with women having sex with each other! There is nothing wrong with sharing it in a public space! When you click on a link that’s called GoodDykePorn.com you are consenting to be a part of that public space.

Instead of embracing sex and sexuality as a natural part of our lives, instead of embracing pornographers as a welcome contributor to our everyday lives these mainstream communities simply delete me. I’m relegated to the porno communities that don’t even have a category for “dyke porn”, that don’t even have female directors in their directory of pornographers (I know they exist, they just don’t participate in these adult communities).

I find the internet really frustrating regarding these sort of divisions and restrictions, but at the same time I can still write a post like this and share it with many people at once. I can provide Good Dyke Porn to people around the world quite easily. And I can get feedback and support and love from those of you who watch and care about this as much as I do.

I’ll keep working at legitimizing, sharing, and creating dyke porn. But, I think I’ll remove the link from Facebook profile. I can play the game. Eventually, sex will be appreciated, accepted and embraced. Once our dominant society puts more focus on love, rather than violence, we’ll be on our way there.

The Rules:

1. Link to your tagger (Butchtastic!) and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as their links to their blogs.
4. Let the know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The Facts:

1. My myspace account was deleted this week for having a link to an adult website - bye bye 800 new friends.
2. My car was written off last week - someone smashed into it in front of my house and then took off, but I needed the cash anyway.
3. Despite being described as a “public pervert” by some, I’m actually quite shy and introverted.
4. I can juggle.
5. I play classical guitar - like Bach and shit like that.
6. I like green smoothies.
7. I don’t want to pass this tagging game onto anyone else - see I’m SHY!

But I will give you some links of blogs that I like.

Buck Angel Blog - transsexual male porn star
Waking Vixen Productions - Audacia Ray’s blog
Sugarbutch Chronicles - sex, gender and awesomeness
Leather Yenta - Lolita Wolf’s Predictions & Predilections
Ms. Naughty - erotica for women
Viviane’s Sex Carnival

I’m still getting to know the world, so please introduce yourself and I’ll start filling out my blogroll.