Welcome to alt.support.intimacy-reclaim!

It's taken a while to get this group off the ground, but it's here now (with mucho credit to my friend Richard Morrison, who found me floundering around in alt.config and did SO much to make this group possible) and the floor is open for anyone who wants to start talking.

I hope we can find, here, an atmosphere of mutual respect and openness, a place where things that have felt out of place feel like things that not only CAN be talked about, but SHOULD be talked about.

I expect that this group will draw a variety of people with a variety of experiences and feelings and desires. I think it's important that we respect this and that if something makes us uncomfortable, we can find a way to take care of ourselves while still upholding the basic right of people to talk about the things that hurt, as well as the things that help. Even the things that thrill.

I like the idea of an absence of "rules." I think that the more open and the more respectful we try to be, the more restrictions become unnecessary. I personally advocate the use of spoilers as an option for particularly sensitive material, although I wouldn't want to require it (some people who come here might not even know what spoilers ARE). It would defeat the purpose to put spoilers above every post that mentioned sex, since this newsgroup is ABOUT sex, so _everything_ would end up being spoilered. =)

As far as splats, I don't plan to use them myself except for perhaps here and there on a particularly sensitive word (although I do plan to splat the word sex in subject lines and I think that's something that should really be done regularly to avoid sex spam). I think that part of this journey should include taking back those hushed words, to stand up and say sex and related words aloud. To own those words as part of our lives, or at least part of our thoughts. This has been very important to me.

Following is the charter of the group.

Charter:

Open discussion of reclamation of sexual and emotional intimacy among those who have been sexually dysfunctional as the result of being raped, abused or otherwise traumatized, as well as those who have had other damaging experiences, such as having been raised in oppressive environments where sexuality and emotional intimacy were treated in a demoralizing manner. Discussion of sexual dysfunction; discussion of the roots of the dysfunction; discussion of healing experiences and thoughts; discussion of achieving sexual and emotional intimacy; discussion of alternative forms of sexuality in healing; discussion of past and present sexual experiences; discussion of masturbation; supportive dialogues among those who have experienced sexual dysfunction. Emphasis on acceptance of people's sexualities. Emphasis on giving people a forum in which they can feel free to express themselves.