The Chain

Trauma, abuse, depression – words to live and die by.  Recent events have once again shed a light on a major problem in our alternative communities – life saving support.  Be we Bears, Leatherfolk or BDSM lifestylers, when problems hit, we have few places to turn to for support from people who understand the often complicated lives we lead.

SM, polyamory, brotherhoods of Bears and Leather, pup packs, Masters and slaves – are all non mainstream activities and relationship types.  Common support services like Lifeline, Beyond Blue and Qlife often fail to understand the convoluted issues we face.  Sometimes we don’t understand them well ourselves. 

What is abusive in a lifestyle that celebrates extreme body modification, sadomaschistic activities and authoritarian relationships?  How far does consent go?  Do we have a duty of care to prevent self harm by our partners and friends?  What IS self harm and not human exploration with the added spice of a certain amount of danger? When is it too far and too much?

These are questions our communities regularly face in the event of a tragedy.  Questions we’ve been unable to answer and sometimes unable to talk freely about even among ourselves.  We’d like to get on with the work of changing that.

KNOTbound Ltd was created and exists to provide support services to our communities.  One of these planned services is The Chain, a support line for our people to call, staffed with experienced and trained persons who can talk to callers with empathy and lifestyle understanding.  The Chain has been in the concept stage for two years.  We believe it’s time to make The Chain a reality.

To do this we are asking for your help.  We have set up a crowdfunding page here to raise the initial funds needed to train and staff a specialised help line.  Over the next few weeks we will be talking with existing support lines such as Qlife and Lifeline to find the right organisation to work with and hopefully help us shorten the time it takes to make this a reality.

Join us today. Buy a Link. Build The Chain.

Together, we are stronger.