St. Valentine’s
gets sloppy

The Fuck Love, Let’s Fuck play party
dispenses with the cute and cuddly and
gets down to the queer and dirty

by LINA HARPER

Those of us who aren’t into hearts and puppies for St. Valentine’s Day might appreciate the anti-love sentiment presented at the Fuck Love, Let’s Fuck party.

Against the Wall, a grassroots queer collective, has been organizing the kink parties since 2008. Collective member Kate Lamothe says the parties have “definite political overtones.”

Play parties are overtly sexual get-togethers for adults with alternative sexual preferences, and they’re an important part of fetish lifestyles. Up until now, the parties were specifically catered to queer women and transfolk—and closed to men who sleep with men. They also didn’t have much of the performance aspect besides its main focus on the sexy stuff. This V-Day, they’ll include performances, a DJ-led dance party and will open their doors to the boys. This shift is reflective of the queer movement’s rebirth, says collective member Shorty.

“Play parties are growing all over the world. There’s a renaissance in queer sexuality right now, which is really exciting for us. I mean, you look at the ’80s and ’90s, with the HIV epidemic in our communities—it was a time when sexuality was more repressed, there was celibacy, there was fear… and now it’s, like, a celebration,” she says.

Public play party can be tough to swallow for newbies. Collective member Sarah Fuchs says shy people should talk themselves into coming anyway. “They can prepare themselves by telling themselves that they don’t have to do anything, they can just watch and talk to people,” she says.

“We always try to have a game of spin the bottle going at all times, and a DJ for a dance party and matchmaking kind of stuff too,” Lamothe adds. The collective also has several volunteers—active listeners who are there if anyone needs to talk, and “Dungeon Monitors” who get people talking to each other. The ladies are expecting about 100 participants this time around.

The night starts off with the all-important consent workshop. People should bring ID to prove age (not gender).

Fuck Love, Let’s Fuck happens at Eastern Bloc (7240 Clark) on Saturday, Feb. 14, 9 p.m. Performance artists Ms. Mandrew Flowerthorne and Laurence Laurence Laurence will open the night and there will be DJ sets by Faggotron, dirtyboots, Riotghost and Noisy Nora all night. There’s a $10 suggested donation and all the money goes to support the collective. Check out the blog for more info: against thewallmontreal.wordpress.com.