events Archives - Godless Perverts

Lights For Liberty: Vigil Against the Camps

July 9, 2019 by Godless Perverts

Join the vigil against the concentration camps, with Godless Perverts.

The rise of concentration camps at the southern border of the United States is more than nightmarish. Even those of us who are far away from the actual violence, who see it only through the internet and cable news, are still trying to wrap our heads around the reality of it. This much is clear, though: the camps represent a direct assault on the basic civil rights of people of color by the Administration. People have died, and more will die the longer the camps — and the racist policies behind them — are considered legitimate.

Godless Perverts has been explicitly devoted to social justice from our very founding, and we can’t stay silent on this. On Friday July 12, Lights for Liberty, a series of candlelight vigils opposing the camps, will be held nationwide. The event is sponsored by an enormous list of social justice organizations including the United Farm Workers Foundation, The Dolores Huerta Foundation, Al Otro Lado, New Sanctuary Coalition, Black Movement Law Project, and many more.

Godless Perverts is small compared to those great organizations, but we feel that it’s essential to add our voice. We’re organizing a contingent to join in the San Francisco event, and we want you to join us.

Where and When?

Meetup: We’re going to meet at Peet’s Coffee, 773 Market Street, between 6:30 and 7 pm, then walk over to the vigil (about a block away).
Vigil: Powell St Cable Car Turnaround, 7-10PM

We encourage you to bring candles (fire or electric) and/or protest signs, but that’s not necessary. We support you in just showing up.

If San Francisco is a little too far, remember that there are vigils happening all over the country. You can find a whole list on the Lights for Liberty website. If public gatherings are hard for you, contact your Congressional representative and Senators.

We hope to see you there.

Rsvp if you like:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2589333394424336/
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Godless-Perverts/events/263012244/

The Impurity Ball Ring Toss Game

August 2, 2017 by Greta Christina

We’re getting very excited for the Impurity Ball, a benefit for the Center for Sex and Culture and Godless Perverts on August 5. It isn’t just a dance party — it’s an events extravaganza, a bit like a school fair. We’ll have ten-minute dating, debaptisms, prom photos, and an impurity supply station courtesy of Wicked Grounds. And we’re very excited about what we’re sure will be one of our most popular activities: the Impure Ring Toss game.

Many thanks to Vixen Creations, who provided several of the, er, supplies for this game.

The Impurity Ball is at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco (near 9th Street, close to the Civic Center BART). Saturday, August 5, 7-10 pm. Suggested donation $10-$30: no-one turned away for lack of funds. RSVP on Facebook or Meetup (RSVPs appreciated but not necessary). All proceeds to benefit the Center for Sex and Culture and Godless Perverts. Hope to see you there!

Impurity Ball Art!

August 1, 2017 by Godless Perverts

Ember has been busy making art and decorations for the upcoming Impurity Ball — a dance party and events extravaganza spoofing purity balls and celebrating sexual freedom, and a benefit for the Center for Sex and Culture and Godless Perverts. Saturday Aug. 5!

We’re going to have an Impurity Ring Toss game:

Debaptisms:

An Introverts’ Lounge:

And a station for prom photos!

For the Prom Photo station, we’ll have some props for you to use to take the naughty prom photo of your dreams — including these nifty little Valentine candy heart signs, with a variety of smutty, kinky, romantic, and/or political messages.

ACT UP Workshop A Big Success!

January 11, 2017 by Greta Christina

All four presenters at ACT UP workshop hosted by Godless Perverts on Jan 9, 2017. Left to right: Ingrid Nelson, Rebecca Hensler, Crystal Mason, and Laura Thomas.

The ACT UP workshop hosted by Godless Perverts on January 9 was a huge success! It was standing room only at the Center for Sex and Culture, all the more notable with the weather being so bad. We actually had to turn people away at the door. (A nice problem to have, but still a problem: we apologize again to anyone who wasn’t able to get into the workshop, and we hope to have another one soon.) And the feedback we’ve gotten has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s impossible to summarize the entire workshop in one blog post — we made an audio recording of the event, which we’ll post as soon as possible — but here are a few highlights. [Read more…]

How ACT UP Fought Back: Direct Action and Civil Disobedience (Workshop)

December 20, 2016 by Greta Christina

UPDATE: We now have ASL interpretation! Details below.

Since the 2016 election, many of us have been looking at how to build a resistance movement. ACT UP was one of the most effective resistance movements in recent history. In this workshop, former ACT UP SF members Rebecca Hensler, Crystal Mason, and Ingrid Nelson share some of their personal stories about how they came to be involved in direct action, how they got organized, what their strategies and values were, their successes and challenges with intersectionality, and what current resistance movements can learn from their experiences.

Rebecca Hensler

This is not a civil disobedience training: come to learn some history and get inspired to take action. Co-sponsored by Godless Perverts and the GLBT Historical Society.

We’re asking for donations of $5-$20 at the door to cover our costs, but no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Ingrid Nelson

Godless Perverts presents and promotes a positive view of sexuality without religion, by and for sex-positive atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other non-believers, through performance events, panel discussions, social gatherings, media productions, and other appropriate outlets. Our events and media productions present depictions, explorations, and celebrations of godless sexualities — including positive, traumatic, and complex experiences — focusing on the intersections of sexuality with atheism, materialism, skepticism, and science, as well as critical, questioning, mocking, or blasphemous views of sex and religion.

Crystal Mason

UPDATE ON ASL INTERPRETATION: We now have ASL interpretation scheduled for this event! We’re setting aside some seats near the front for people who need ASL interpretation: please arrive early if you can, since we’re expecting a full house. Many thanks to the people who lit a fire under us to do this, and to our anonymous donor who’s covering the cost. And many thanks to Bay Area Communication Access (BACA) for taking our request at the last minute.

Godless Perverts is committed to feminism, diversity, inclusivity, and social justice. We seek to create safe and welcoming environments for all non-believers and believing allies who are respectful of the mission, and are committed to taking positive action to achieve this. Please let the moderators or other people in charge of any event know if you encounter harassment, racism, misogyny, transphobia, or other problems at our events.

If you want to be notified about all our Godless Perverts events, sign up for our email mailing list, follow us on Twitter at @GodlessPerverts, or follow us on Facebook. You can also sign up for the Bay Area Atheists/ Agnostics/ Humanists/ Freethinkers/ Skeptics Meetup page, and be notified of all sorts of godless Bay Area events — including many Godless Perverts events. And of course, you can always visit our Website to find out what we’re up to, godlessperverts.com. Hope to see you soon!

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time – Benefit for St. James Infirmary! NOW AT CENTER FOR SEX AND CULTURE!

December 2, 2016 by Greta Christina

LOCATION CHANGE! The Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time party is now at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, between 9th and 10th Streets, near the Civic Center BART station.

Godless Perverts is throwing our annual Holiday Fun Time party on Saturday, December 10, 8-11 pm! Who says the holidays are only for the believers? Just as families don’t stop giving presents after the kids realize that Santa is a fake, the godless can have a great time during the holidays even without any gods, deities, angels, or spirits watching over them. And Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time is just the place to do it! It’s at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, between 9th and 10th Streets, near the Civic Center BART station. (Yes, the location has changed! This is the new, correct location.) And this year, we’re making it a fundraiser for St. James Infirmary, the health clinic for sex workers in San Francisco!

We’ll have:

Festive food and drink! It’s a potluck: we’ll provide food, but we’d love to add your holiday treats to the buffet.
Adorably ridiculous icebreaker games!
Atheist holiday songs, celebrating the improper, twisted, and just plain silly!
Door prizes, including books and DVDs that are godless, pervy, or both!

And this year, Donna will be doing debaptisms! In fact, she’ll undo any religious initiation ceremony you like. Baptisms, confirmations, Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, Wiccanings — you name it, she’ll undo it! Donna is a fully certified Humanist celebrant, so when you’re debaptised, you stay that way.

Blasphemous costumes, sexy costumes, awesome combinations of the above, and other festive garb are encouraged, but by no means required.

This year’s party is a benefit for St. James Infirmary. St. James is a unique healthcare resource, even in San Francisco. Founded by and for sex workers, they provide free, compassionate and nonjudgmental healthcare and social services for current and former sex workers of all genders and sexual orientations. We wholeheartedly support the organization, and we want to help them out. So all donations collected at the party will go directly to St. James Infirmary. Last year we raised over $900 for them: let’s see if we can beat that this year!

We’re asking for donations of $10-$20 at the door — but please just donate what you can, whether that’s less than $10, or more than $20. (We’re also collecting funds now to cover the costs of throwing the party — please help make it happen if you can!)

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time is at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, between 9th and 10th Streets, near the Civic Center BART station. (Please note the new, correct location!) Saturday, December 10, 8:00 to 11:00 pm. We hope to see you there!

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time – Benefit for St. James Infirmary! NOW AT CENTER FOR SEX AND CULTURE!

October 26, 2016 by Greta Christina

We’ll have:

Blasphemous costumes, sexy costumes, awesome combinations of the above, and other festive garb are encouraged, but by no means required.

Godless Perverts Story Hour in SF, Saturday August 27!

August 24, 2016 by Greta Christina

We have a Godless Perverts Story Hour coming up in San Francisco on Saturday, August 29! The Story Hour is the performance/ entertainment/ literary reading branch of the Godless Perverts empire — we’ll be bringing you depictions, explorations, and celebrations of godless sexualities, as well as critical, mocking, and blasphemous views of sex and religion. And we’re very excited to be bringing in an out-of-town performer — Heina Dadabhoy!

Heina Dadabhoy spent their childhood as a practicing Muslim who never in their right mind would have believed that they would grow up to be an atheist feminist secular humanist and a pansexual genderqueer switch to boot. Heina has been an active participant in atheist organizations and events in and around Orange County, CA since 2007, and on the national stage since 2011. You may have heard them at Skepticon, the American Atheists National Convention, the Huffington Post Live, and Have Your Say on the BBC World Service or read about them in the New York Times.

Our other readers and performers for the evening include Donna Jay, Juba Kalamka, Ember Atwell, Michaela Goldhaber, and co-hosts Greta Christina and Chris Hall.

So please join us at the for an evening about how to have good sex without having any gods, goddesses, spirits, or their earthly representatives hanging over your shoulder and telling you that you’re doing it wrong. The evening’s entertainment will have a range of voices — sexy and serious, passionate and funny, and all of the above — talking about how our sexualities can not only exist, but even thrive, without the supernatural.

The event is at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission St. in San Francisco, near Civic Center BART. Admission is a sliding scale, $10-$20, with no-one turned away for lack of funds. Proceeds go to the Center for Sex and Culture. Hope to see you there!

Godless Perverts Raises Over $900 for St. James Infirmary!

December 14, 2015 by Greta Christina

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow.

On Saturday December 12, Godless Perverts hosted a benefit party for St. James Infirmary, the San Francisco health clinic run by and for sex workers. We just finished tallying up the numbers — and we raised over $900! ($901, to be precise.)

This was our first big fundraising event, and we’re delighted that it went so well. Everyone at the party had a grand time — the silly icebreaker game was a big hit, as it mysteriously is every year. We had a wonderful spread of yummy food and beverage. The fraudulent Tarot readings were eerie and hilarious. And very importantly — between donations made at the event, and overflow from our online fundraiser, we raised over $900. St. James Infirmary is an important and valuable resource: they provide sex workers of all genders with health care and counseling of all kinds, including primary care service, gynecological and urological medical care, STI testing and counselling, needle exchanges, and support groups. We were delighted to be able to pull together the energy and resources of the Godless Perverts community, to support the clinic in such a tangible way. We’ll definitely be doing this sort of event again!

We want to extend a huge “Thank You” to everyone who helped out. We want to wholeheartedly thank Borderlands Cafe: the space was perfect for the party; the management went out of their way to help us make the event a success; and the staff were incredibly warm and supportive, and did a lot to make the event a pleasure for everyone there. They even donated to the fundraiser! Big thanks to the volunteers who showed up early or stayed late to help make the event happen. Thanks, of course, to everyone who brought food or beverage — we had a wonderful spread! We want to give a big “Thank You” to Juba Kalamka, who did such a wonderful job representing St. James Infirmary at the party. Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the event and about our online fundraiser: we know that not everyone can attend events or donate money, and we’re so glad that social media made it possible for everyone to help out.

And many thanks, of course, go to everyone who donated money. Whether you made a large donation or a small one, whether you donated at the event or through our online fundraiser, you made this a success.

Greta and Chris are terrible at remembering to take pictures at our events — so alas, we don’t have party pics! We do have pics of food and door prizes, though. (If you have pics of the party — and permission of everyone in the pictures to post them — please send them our way! Yes, selfies totally count.)

Greta’s cookies

Greta’s chocolate pies

Door prizes

And did we mention that we raised over $900 for St. James Infirmary? We did. All of us. If you did anything at all to help make this event happen — if you mentioned it to a friend, if you kicked in a couple of bucks when we passed the hat at a Godless Perverts Social Club, if you just helped build the Godless Perverts community so we could get stronger and put on events like this one — you were part of making this happen, and we’re deeply grateful.

Note: If you missed out on this fundraiser, and want to support St. James Infirmary, you can donate directly to them here.

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time – A Benefit for St. James Infirmary!

November 23, 2015 by Greta Christina

Godless Perverts is throwing our annual Holiday Fun Time party! Who says that the holidays are only for the believers? Just as families don’t stop giving presents after the kids realize that Santa is a fake, the godless can have a great time during the holidays even without any gods, deities, angels, or spirits watching over them. And Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time is just the place to do it! It’s at Borderlands Cafe this year, near the 24th and Mission BART station — and this year, we’re making it a fundraiser for St. James Infirmary, the health clinic for sex workers in San Francisco!

We’ll have:

And this year, Greta will be doing fraudulent Tarot readings! Well, okay, all Tarot readings are fraudulent — but she’s telling you that up front. (She used to take this seriously back in her woo days, and she’s actually really good at it.)

Blasphemous costumes, sexy costumes, awesome combinations of the above, and other festive garb are encouraged, but by no means required.

This year’s party is a benefit for St. James Infirmary. St. James is a unique healthcare resource, even in San Francisco. Founded by and for sex workers, they provide free, compassionate and nonjudgmental healthcare and social services for current and former sex workers of all genders and sexual orientations. Like so many San Francisco non-profits, they are being forced to move after losing their lease. They need to find a new site by the end of the year. We wholeheartedly support the organization, and we want to help them out. So all donations collected at the party will go directly to St. James Infirmary. Greta’s going to charge $2 a minute for the fraudulent Tarot readings, and all proceeds from that will also go to St. James Infirmary.

Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time is at Borderlands Cafe this year, 870 Valencia St. in San Francisco (at 20th Street, near the 24th and Mission BART station). Saturday, December 12, 8:00 to 11:00 pm. We hope to see you there!