Amy Shiner

Whenever I have a hard time communicating with a polyamorous partner I remember some words of wisdom my therapist endowed on me. I was having a hard time in relationships and he pointed out communication in even a simple monogamous relationship can get somewhat difficult, but I've always had a...

A part of my life I sometimes struggle with is my need of submission. I have had discussions more than once with people on this and have been told that it's a phase, it's OK, or as my mother sometimes puts it "be your own woman!" Submission, in my opinion,...

I dance to my own drum when it comes to my sexual identity. After years of experimenting, growth, and realization, I was faced with two realities: 1) I am pansexual, someone who is attracted to male, female, and transgender individuals; and 2) despite the advances that the LGBTQA movement has...

I have mulled over something for about a month now...

After hearing the argument thatFifty Shades of Grey overrides the Women's Movement I feel somewhat taken back... despite identifying myself as submissive and agreeing to follow someone else's rules, a big part of my volunteering in college was...

Recently, I have been poking around online to see if anyone is looking for the same thing I am looking for when it comes to kinks and fetishes. But when I look at kink and fetish ads in newspapers and online, among the most confusing things for me are the...

Eric and I are going on five years this July. Many people's response when they learn this is to say that I'm two years away from the seven-year itch.

With a long-distance relationship, that itch comes every four months and there was a scratch after two years. In the age...

I have always said that I have blood family and chosen family. My blood family, which, depending on the day of the week and the moon cycle, might not be talking to me, is eclectic. My chosen family, which is made up of close friends from my kink and church...

At church last night, I came out as polyamorous.

It was an endorphin rush. Before I'm told that coming out in a setting like this is really for me and not for anyone else, let me tell you that it was already somewhat apparent that I was poly. With the...

I have a good amount of open relationships. I'm young, I'm 25, and at the moment I'm not in a place in my life where commitment fits. I also have a thing for guys my father's age... and for the most part that will never lead to a long-standing relationship....

My friends often have really great ideas.

Let me rephrase. I often have friends to whom I am "in service," people whose directions I consciously agree to follow (completely non-sexually) or submit to, who have really great ideas. The conversation then turns to implementing said ideas, and the word "we"...

After joining the Universal Unitarian Church this past year, one of the major questions for me was, "What is my holiday going to look like, with my Catholic background meshed with my own beliefs?" I lucked out in having very supportive parents who understand that I respect their beliefs and...

Pop culture has created a view, both in the kink world and the vanilla (non-kinky) world, of partners who are perfect in every way, both mentally and physically. There are stereotypes, everyone has their own views, and then reality sets in. It doesn't matter if you're vanilla or kinky; everyone...

Looking to give your sex-positive friends or lovers a gift this holiday season? Here is a list of some of the more sought-out gifts that will be sure to have your friends and lovers excited. Comprised of items for both the adventurous sexual and the sensual intimate moments, these gifts...

Society, which incorporates guilt and shame to anything other than "conventional," is feeling a shake in boundaries with the new eye-opening book "Shameless," a self-discovering memoir by Pamela Madsen. I was honored to attend a reading by Madsen, who toured to promote "Shameless" this past fall, and shamelessly...

This past weekend I made a pilgrimage to Western Massachusetts to the Transcending Boundaries Conference (also known as TBC) in Springfield, Ma. The conference, which attracted over 300 attendees, a 25% increase from last year, attracts members of the kink, poly, and GLBTQA community from across the country....

In the past few weeks I have highlighted the issues that come up in polyamorous relationships, common issues to communicate on, and this week I am highlighting the benefits of being poly. There are benefits, despite all of the ups and downs of poly, of the lifestyle. The benefits, in...

I was asked, in my last posting, why I'm taking the path I'm taking if I experience jealousy. Everyone experiences jealousy or wanting something more. This is the human condition. It's economics when you get down to it. On another level, if you have ever read the book If You...

I have been practicing polyamorous relationships for about five years. I go in and out of relationships, reevaluate relationships, and on occasion I find some relationships that really do make me happy. Despite my opinion that poly and open relationships bring more benefits to me than monogamy, I find myself...

I think the saying is true that you will come out more than once in your lifetime if you fall in any range of the GLBT spectrum. I have a triple whammy; I am poly, kinky and queer.

I've had a lot of different coming-outs, but the easiest has...

October is known, in the LGBT -- or GLBT-- community as LGBT History Month. Rodney Wilson, a teacher in Missouri, decided in 1994 that there should be some way of celebrating and teaching gay and lesbian history. GLBT history is the only history, of a minority group, that...