ABSTRACT
In October 2003, the Washington DC-based organisation Black Rose, which serves the region’s community of people interested in bondage, discipline and sadomasochistic (BDSM) sexual practices, was forced to cancel its 7th annual conference. The conference was slated to take place at the Princess Royale Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland. Though the organisers had wished to keep the event private, word had spread among Ocean City residents, rousing protests from business owners, religious leaders and city officials. The annual conference, billed as ‘the world’s largest pansexual BDSM event of the year’, was expected to attract over 1,200 attendees for three days of workshops, lectures, presentations and BDSM play. The hotel had already sold out its 300-plus rooms, with the overflow filling up other local inns and hotels. But public outcry led the liquor board to threaten revocation of the hotel’s license, effectively shutting down the event (Smith 2003).
