[UUPoly-L] On Poly, Kink, and Unitarianism

["Ken Haslam" <haslamk@gmail.com>]

Over the past couple of years I have done several presentations for the Poly
community.  On occasion I asked unselected Poly audiences for a show of
hands indicating a connection to the UU community.  Roughly 1/3 of the
audience is somehow connected to the UU community.

And on one occasion at a huge BDSM meeting of some 700 attendees (Winter
Fire -- 2005) I was at a workshop on Polyamory for the Beginner with about
70 or so present.  (Note, about 10% of the entire population at WF)   I
asked how many of these "BDSMers" at the Poly workshop were also in some way
or other affiliated with the Unitarian Universalists and again about 1/3 of
the hands went up.

OK, OK, so it is not very scientific, not well designed, and not
representative, and far from accurate but it does give a rough indication
that there is a lot of crossover between UU, Polyamory, and Kink. These are
not findings that will please everyone but certainly indicative of a piece
of the demography of the Poly, BDSM, and UU communities.   The truth is
sometimes a bit difficult to swallow.

As scientific papers often say at the end, more research is needed.  Grad
students out there in sociology looking for a thesis topic might find
something of interest here.

Ken Haslam