The Stranger, one of Seattle's alternative newspapers, has an interesting piece on the Seattle Sex-Positive Community Center, which is better known around these parts by its self-selected nickname: The Wet Spot. What does a meeting place for swingers and BDSM fans have to do with raising kids, you say? I'm glad you ask! The Stranger's write-up investigates the child custody cases of parents who have had to fight to keep their kids because of their participation in club events. For example, a woman known only as Khaos W. saw her sons adopted out because her vindictive ex-husband brought her "deviant lifestyle" up in court. (He wasn't the kids' father, and didn't want custody; he just wanted to hurt his ex.)
The Stranger's Jason Simms goes on to examine how, in any case involving sex, the parent's lifestyle is assumed to be harmful to their kids; it's up to the parent on the defensive to "prove" that no harm's been done. Bah. This is just another example of how we expect parents to abandon any semblance of an adult life once they have sprogs. So long as parents firewall their adult activities off from their children, what business should it be of the courts - or their vindictive ex-spouses - what they do with their free time?
