Impurity Pledge

August 4, 2017 by Greta Christina

At the upcoming Impurity Ball, a benefit for the Center for Sex and Culture and Godless Perverts on Saturday August 5, you’ll have a chance to take our Impurity Pledge. At the Purity balls we’re mocking, teenage girls pledge to stay virgins until marriage, and fathers pledge to protect their daughters’ virginity. So we’ve created an Impurity Pledge, representing the sexual values of Godless Perverts and the Center for Sex and Culture. We’ll have an appropriately pretentious ritual to accompany it.

An important piece of our values is consent — so participation in the Impurity Pledge will be entirely voluntary. Take it; don’t take it; take parts of it but not other parts — it’s totally up to you. You’re still welcome to join the party!

Godless Perverts Impurity Pledge

I pledge to support my fellow human beings in their consensual sexuality or asexuality.
I pledge to respect other people’s boundaries, whether sexual, emotional, or physical.
I pledge to communicate before, during, and after intimacy, including (but not limited to) negotiation, encouragement, safewords, checking-in, moans, grunts, screams, saccharine pet names, sincere praise, and contented periods of silence.
I pledge to educate myself about sexuality, maintaining curiosity within the bounds of respect.
I pledge to make my decisions about sexuality based on evidence, ethics, and consensual pleasure.

The Impurity Ball is at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco (near 9th Street, close to the Civic Center BART). Saturday, August 5, 7-10 pm. Suggested donation $10-$30: no-one turned away for lack of funds. RSVP on Facebook or Meetup (RSVPs appreciated but not necessary). All proceeds to benefit the Center for Sex and Culture and Godless Perverts. Hope to see you there!

The Impurity Ball Ring Toss Game

August 2, 2017 by Greta Christina

We’re getting very excited for the Impurity Ball, a benefit for the Center for Sex and Culture and Godless Perverts on August 5. It isn’t just a dance party — it’s an events extravaganza, a bit like a school fair. We’ll have ten-minute dating, debaptisms, prom photos, and an impurity supply station courtesy of Wicked Grounds. And we’re very excited about what we’re sure will be one of our most popular activities: the Impure Ring Toss game.

Many thanks to Vixen Creations, who provided several of the, er, supplies for this game.

ACT UP Workshop A Big Success!

January 11, 2017 by Greta Christina

All four presenters at ACT UP workshop hosted by Godless Perverts on Jan 9, 2017. Left to right: Ingrid Nelson, Rebecca Hensler, Crystal Mason, and Laura Thomas.

The ACT UP workshop hosted by Godless Perverts on January 9 was a huge success! It was standing room only at the Center for Sex and Culture, all the more notable with the weather being so bad. We actually had to turn people away at the door. (A nice problem to have, but still a problem: we apologize again to anyone who wasn’t able to get into the workshop, and we hope to have another one soon.) And the feedback we’ve gotten has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s impossible to summarize the entire workshop in one blog post — we made an audio recording of the event, which we’ll post as soon as possible — but here are a few highlights. [Read more…]

“What Can We Do?”: Report on the Godless Perverts Meetup, “Participating in a Resistance Movement”

December 15, 2016 by Greta Christina

Ohm: a unit of resistance.

We recently held a Godless Perverts Social Club discussion on Participating in a Resistance Movement. It was a huge success: we think the turnout was bigger than any Social Club we’ve had in our four years of operating, and the conversation was inspiring, practical, and productive. We talked about which issues our community is most concerned about since the election; what actions people can take to resist the rise of fascism and the extreme right-wing — and what actions we’d like the Godless Perverts to organize. Here’s a summary. [Read more…]

About Greta Christina

Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and is on the speaker's bureaus of the Secular Student Alliance. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, Skeptical Inquirer and numerous anthologies, including Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of Best American Erotica. She is co-founder and co-organizer of Godless Perverts, a performance series and social community that promotes a positive view of sexuality without religion. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gcgreta (at) doubtfulpalace (dot) com, and follow her on Twitter at @GretaChristina.

We Raised Over $800 For St. James Infirmary!

December 12, 2016 by Greta Christina

chocolate-pies-for-godless-perverts-holiday-fun-time-party

Chocolate pies for the Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time party. They include pure chocolate, five-spice chocolate, Greta’s signature spice blend, and the experimental rosemary almond chocolate.

Our 2016 Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time party was a thumping success! Good fun was had by all. We had great conversations: the ridiculously adorable icebreaker game did its job admirably. There was loads of tasty food (and Greta’s experiment with the rosemary almond chocolate pie turned out great): many thanks to everyone who brought treats to share. Chris’s mixtape was awesome, a great blend of sex, blasphemy, and resistance. Donna debaptised several people, and she’s a certified Humanist celebrant, so when she debaptises you, it sticks. And very importantly we raised $809.81 for St. James Infirmary, the health clinic for sex workers!

[Read more…]

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time – Benefit for St. James Infirmary! NOW AT CENTER FOR SEX AND CULTURE!

December 2, 2016 by Greta Christina

LOCATION CHANGE! The Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time party is now at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, between 9th and 10th Streets, near the Civic Center BART station.

Godless Perverts is throwing our annual Holiday Fun Time party on Saturday, December 10, 8-11 pm! Who says the holidays are only for the believers? Just as families don’t stop giving presents after the kids realize that Santa is a fake, the godless can have a great time during the holidays even without any gods, deities, angels, or spirits watching over them. And Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time is just the place to do it! It’s at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, between 9th and 10th Streets, near the Civic Center BART station. (Yes, the location has changed! This is the new, correct location.) And this year, we’re making it a fundraiser for St. James Infirmary, the health clinic for sex workers in San Francisco!

We’ll have:

Festive food and drink! It’s a potluck: we’ll provide food, but we’d love to add your holiday treats to the buffet.
Adorably ridiculous icebreaker games!
Atheist holiday songs, celebrating the improper, twisted, and just plain silly!
Door prizes, including books and DVDs that are godless, pervy, or both!

And this year, Donna will be doing debaptisms! In fact, she’ll undo any religious initiation ceremony you like. Baptisms, confirmations, Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, Wiccanings — you name it, she’ll undo it! Donna is a fully certified Humanist celebrant, so when you’re debaptised, you stay that way.

Blasphemous costumes, sexy costumes, awesome combinations of the above, and other festive garb are encouraged, but by no means required.

This year’s party is a benefit for St. James Infirmary. St. James is a unique healthcare resource, even in San Francisco. Founded by and for sex workers, they provide free, compassionate and nonjudgmental healthcare and social services for current and former sex workers of all genders and sexual orientations. We wholeheartedly support the organization, and we want to help them out. So all donations collected at the party will go directly to St. James Infirmary. Last year we raised over $900 for them: let’s see if we can beat that this year!

We’re asking for donations of $10-$20 at the door — but please just donate what you can, whether that’s less than $10, or more than $20. (We’re also collecting funds now to cover the costs of throwing the party — please help make it happen if you can!)

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time is at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, between 9th and 10th Streets, near the Civic Center BART station. (Please note the new, correct location!) Saturday, December 10, 8:00 to 11:00 pm. We hope to see you there!

Godless Perverts Raises Over $900 for St. James Infirmary!

December 14, 2015 by Greta Christina

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow.

On Saturday December 12, Godless Perverts hosted a benefit party for St. James Infirmary, the San Francisco health clinic run by and for sex workers. We just finished tallying up the numbers — and we raised over $900! ($901, to be precise.)

This was our first big fundraising event, and we’re delighted that it went so well. Everyone at the party had a grand time — the silly icebreaker game was a big hit, as it mysteriously is every year. We had a wonderful spread of yummy food and beverage. The fraudulent Tarot readings were eerie and hilarious. And very importantly — between donations made at the event, and overflow from our online fundraiser, we raised over $900. St. James Infirmary is an important and valuable resource: they provide sex workers of all genders with health care and counseling of all kinds, including primary care service, gynecological and urological medical care, STI testing and counselling, needle exchanges, and support groups. We were delighted to be able to pull together the energy and resources of the Godless Perverts community, to support the clinic in such a tangible way. We’ll definitely be doing this sort of event again!

We want to extend a huge “Thank You” to everyone who helped out. We want to wholeheartedly thank Borderlands Cafe: the space was perfect for the party; the management went out of their way to help us make the event a success; and the staff were incredibly warm and supportive, and did a lot to make the event a pleasure for everyone there. They even donated to the fundraiser! Big thanks to the volunteers who showed up early or stayed late to help make the event happen. Thanks, of course, to everyone who brought food or beverage — we had a wonderful spread! We want to give a big “Thank You” to Juba Kalamka, who did such a wonderful job representing St. James Infirmary at the party. Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the event and about our online fundraiser: we know that not everyone can attend events or donate money, and we’re so glad that social media made it possible for everyone to help out.

And many thanks, of course, go to everyone who donated money. Whether you made a large donation or a small one, whether you donated at the event or through our online fundraiser, you made this a success.

Greta and Chris are terrible at remembering to take pictures at our events — so alas, we don’t have party pics! We do have pics of food and door prizes, though. (If you have pics of the party — and permission of everyone in the pictures to post them — please send them our way! Yes, selfies totally count.)

Greta’s cookies

Greta’s chocolate pies

Door prizes

And did we mention that we raised over $900 for St. James Infirmary? We did. All of us. If you did anything at all to help make this event happen — if you mentioned it to a friend, if you kicked in a couple of bucks when we passed the hat at a Godless Perverts Social Club, if you just helped build the Godless Perverts community so we could get stronger and put on events like this one — you were part of making this happen, and we’re deeply grateful.

Note: If you missed out on this fundraiser, and want to support St. James Infirmary, you can donate directly to them here.

Godless Perverts Holiday Benefit for St. James Infirmary — Please Support!

November 8, 2015 by Greta Christina

Godless Perverts is hosting a fundraiser party for St. James Infirmary, the health clinic for sex workers in San Francisco — and we need your help to make it happen!

Every year, Godless Perverts hosts a Holiday Fun Time party, with festive food and drink, door prizes, atheist holiday songs, ridiculously adorable icebreaker games, and more. (This year’s party will be on Saturday, December 12, at Borderlands Cafe.)

This year, we’re turning the party into a fundraiser for St. James Infirmary. St. James is a unique healthcare resource, even in San Francisco. Founded by and for sex workers, they provide free, compassionate and nonjudgmental healthcare and social services for current and former sex workers of all genders and sexual orientations. Like so many San Francisco non-profits, they are being forced to move after losing their lease. They need to find a new site by the end of the year.

Godless Perverts wholeheartedly supports St. James Infirmary — and we want to put our money where our mouth is. So this year’s Holiday Fun Time is a fundraiser. All donations collected at the party will go directly to St. James Infirmary. We’re aiming to make it a barn-burner that raises a heap o’ cash!

But we need your help. We need to cover the expenses of throwing the party: renting the space, printing songbooks, acquiring door prizes, providing food and beverage (the party’s a potluck, but we need to offer something to our early arrivals!). So we’re doing a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe.

We’ve estimated that our total costs will be $700. If we raise more than that, or if the party expenses are less than that, any extra funds will go to St. James Infirmary. (If the party expenses are more than that, we will suck it up and pay out of our pockets — we will not spend more than $700 of your donations on party expenses.)

Please help make this happen! Even small amounts help — if you can only donate $5 or $10 or $20, it really does add up. Your donations will help us throw an awesome party that brings in a bucket of cash for St. James Infirmary. Let’s do this! Please support the event, and spread the word!

(You can also donate directly to St. James Infirmary.)

Godless Perverts Social Club is Starting in Oakland — and We Want Your Feedback!

July 16, 2015 by Greta Christina

We’re going to start having a regular Godless Perverts Social Club in Oakland — and we want your feedback! The Social Club is the community/ social support/ hanging out branch of the Godless Perverts empire. We’re looking at spaces in Oakland, and we want to know what your priorities are so we can serve our community better. Does the food matter more to you? A quiet place to talk? Being near BART?

If you’re a regular at the Godless Perverts Social Clubs; if you’ve attended once or twice; or if you’ve never attended but you’d like to — we want to know what matters to you! So please take a few minutes to take our very short survey. (It should take less than five minutes, unless your suggestions get REALLY long.) That link again:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/935YCY6

Thanks so much — and we’ll see you in Oakland!

About Greta Christina

Why Secular Hedonism Needs Social Justice

August 6, 2014 by Greta Christina Leave a Comment

Originally published at FreethoughtBlogs

I’m going to go out on a limb here. If we want to create and maintain a secular society that values pleasure? If we want to create and maintain a society that recognizes that this life is the only one we have, so we should experience it and enjoy it as richly as we can? If we want to create and maintain a society that understands that our bodies are all we have, and that values those bodies? If we want to create and maintain a society that that recognizes pleasure, not as the only part of life worth working towards, but as one part of that life, and an important one?

We need to fight for social justice.

[Read more…]