Emotions Run High in CatalystCon's Closing Address

Pictured from left, Jackie Rednour-Bruckman, Dr. Hernando Chaves, jessica drake, Mo Beasley LOS ANGELES—CatalystCon just wrapped up a three-day run at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel, ending on a high note. As in high emotions, high anxiety—and high hopes for a better future. When the CatalystCon confab last hit L.A., it was in September 2016—well before the November presidential election, when it seemed possible that there might be a woman running the country come 2017. This year, the mood had definitely changed. And when you’ve got a group of people gathered together to talk about feminist porn, sex education, body image and sexuality, decriminalizing sex work, and smashing the hetero-centric patriarchy, there are bound to be some pretty strong opinions who did end up in the White House. The final panel of CatalystCon brought together four able panelists for the Closing Plenary Address to articulate the swirling emotions in the sex-positive community. The topic was broad: “Sex, Politics and Resistance: Activism for Everyone.” Conference founder Dee Dennis moderated the Sept. 17 event, kicking things off by asking the panelists—Dr. Hernando Chaves, Jackie Rednour-Bruckman, jessica drake and Mo Beasley—to talk about what fuels their activism. Chaves, a licensed marriage and family therapist, drew on his own family background first, saying his parents taught him to value women. “I'm a big believer that men should spend more time with women growing up,” he said. But Chaves found a second family in the adult industry, and that, he said, has been “the fuel for my advocacy.” He cited volunteer work with Sharon Mitchell and the AIM organization, and also working with volunteers in the successful fight against Proposition 60: "I finally felt like I had a home for my advocacy. I felt accepted." Rednour-Bruckman, the executive vice president of Good Vibrations and a pioneer in the field of queer porn, asked, “When did my activism start? I've been wanting to smash the patriarchy since I was a toddler.” As a “child of refugees, displaced persons," Rednour-Bruckman’s grandparents lived under the Italian fascist regime in World War II and had to evade German death camps. They taught, "Never trust the government. ... Never trust anyone unless they would die for you." Regarding the current political situation in the U.S., Rednour-Bruckman said, “You have to fuck shit up, which at this point is, get rid of the electoral college.” Next up was drake, well known in the adult industry as a contract star at Wicked Pictures. Always the picture of grace and gentle persuasion, drake took the question to heart and delved deep into her own background, first as the child of Jehovah’s Witnesses who learned about the joy of volunteer work. But her life was changed forever on a trip to Sexpo South Africa, when she realized she’d never really gotten to know the cities where she traveled for fan expos. So she took a tour with a local guide, who at the end of the day brought her to an orphanage in Soweto for children with AIDS. It was a moment that changed her completely. “To stand in a space and see people—small, small people—who truly had nothing, and no resources and no medical care, it made me hate my life. I hated my house, I hated my car, I hated my clothes, I hated everything. ... I went home and I said, ‘What can I do to make things better?” “That was the beginning of the volunteerism and the advocacy and the activism work that I do,” she said. “I’m also very passionate about sex workers because my basis is situational sex work when I was very, very young—too young to have been doing it—and also periods of homelessness before I turned 18. Those are my influencing factors.” jessica drake   Beasley, an artist, author and educator who founded the live performance series UrbanErotika, started out saying, “I forgot there were fellow survivors of Jehovah.” For him, a defining moment came when a young person he was working with at a Planned Parenthood training wrote, “Thank you for showing me that suicide is not an option.” His life work, Beasley says, is to “crush imperialism,” but he’s come to see that “is not revolutionary, that is evolutionary." (As he later told a member of the audience, “If you choose the road of tearing system down, please don't start until you have a vision of what comes after.”) Moderator Dennis’ next question dealt with the elephant in the room (or in this case, the White House): “Give me one thing you are doing to deal with our president.” Beasley, based in New York, talked about efforts to mobilize voters there in public housing—400,000 strong. “All politics are local. I can't get to the White House, but I can get to City Hall.” Drake said, “One small actionable item is to sign up at DailyAction.org, which will send you a text message every day.” She also suggested, “Find an individual or a family who has been negatively affected” by the administration’s actions, and help them. And finally, "Just show up." Rednour-Bruckman’s advice: "Run for office." And get involved in your own community. “Join local Indivisible chapters. Look at Indivisible.org. ... Start small and start local. Get on your local NextDoor app.” Finally, it was Chaves’ turn to get emotional, as he confessed, “Ever since November, I've had depression all the time. That's been my biggest challenge: to not let it affect my clients and my work.” What’s he’s done is to give up some types of consumption (coffee, clothing) and “put that money toward my donation fund." And he gives those dollars to organizations such as the ACLU. Dee then asked the group to “share a piece of your own self-care.” Beasley didn’t sugar-coat matters: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest. … It is not going to end in your lifetime. Imperialism will still be there. ... But make sure there's less of it because of us and because of what we've done.” Drake lightened the mood: “Can somebody get me a vodka soda from the bar?” After the laughter subsided, she added, “We need to recognize we have a dark side and a light side ... sometimes we need to write letters to our representatives, and sometimes we need to have a vodka soda, or scream and cry. ... Face masks only go so far.” For Rednour-Bruckman, the election was personal because the outcome “was going to affect my family. I'm a big queer of Jewish ancestry and my kids are black. ... I went into war mode. ... Self-care has been going back to square one. I went back to Women's Studies 101, back in the ’80s. ... I have read the fuck out of James Baldwin lately and it gives me some peace.” Chaves opined, “The things I have been encouraging clients to do I have been doing myself." In addition to meditation, he said, "I want to reach out to my friends. ... That has meant the world to me." Rednour-Bruckman joked, "Facebook can be an evil tool used by the Russians, but it can be a way to check up and check in." For her final question, Dennis asked, “What are some offensive things that you can do?” Beasley said, “The opposition is always proposing some shit. Let's start proposing the things we want to change.” “I’m offensive when I walk out the door to most people,” Rednour-Bruckman said. But even while trying “to be disarming and charming—my Canadian mother comes out,” the Good Vibes VP admits, “I have taken on some real trolls. I eat trolls for breakfast. … Just fight the fucking bullies.” Chaves mused, “We've got a predator in chief. They have the majority in the Legislature. But we still have the courts. I've never been so thankful for those checks and balances. I've become a big advocate for the ACLU.” He added, “This is not something I recommend—it's probably something that's contributing to my anxiety,” but to get outside of his own bubble, he watches Fox News. “I want to know what's going on in their bubble." After taking some questions from the crowd, many more insights were expressed: the emotional session ended. Among the hopeful notes was this sentiment from the podium: “You do have a lot of power. You can influence. You can sway. You can manipulate. … You don’t have to stick with people who agree with you 100 percent of the time. You can change hearts and minds.” The next CatalystCon will take place in May 2018. And as Dennis announced at the end, Chaves and drake will be offering two scholarships each for the next conference. For details on the event, visit CatalystCon.com.