by RisleyAddix/Daniel
Living in a post-socialist country might sound exotic to Americans, but since almost all of the Eastern-Central European countries are such states — e.g: Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, etc. — it’s a mundane reality for us. However, because of the histories of conflicting politics and traditions in these countries, BDSMers who live here are generally far more afraid of insults or losing their jobs because of being kinky than our counterparts living in Western countries, like Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the United States.
BDSM Awards here and there
In the US there are several public Leather Awards given out by different organizations. That in itself is an inspiration to us in post-socialist countries. Last year, I almost jumped out of my skin, when I was contacted by a nice American gentleman, telling me, that I have reached to finals of the 27th Pantheon of Leather Awards in the international category. When I have asked him whether anyone from Central/Eastern Europe had ever won this title before, his answer was a clear No.
The Hungarian community and myself were greatly honored when I went on to win the award. We see this award as recognition of our community, including those who attend educational events, those who play and those like me who are teaching and organizing events.
On the other hand, here in Hungary, we are still seeing post-socialist paranoia surround us, even when it comes to BDSM Comunity Awards. We were raised to worry about being watched and monitored by government agents.
In 2015 I founded the Hungarian BDSM Awards. (Other Eastern European countries also have BDSM Community award ceremonies, notably in Poland and the Czech Republic.). My essential idea was to give recognition to those members of our local community who richly deserve it and to do it so via a democratic voting system.
Unfortunately, getting the vote out locally is the first challenge. Secondly, the ongoing post-socialist paranoia about secret groups and sexual politics make it even harder to get community members as active as they wish they could be in the Hungarian BDSM Awards.
This year we will be giving awards in 5 categories:
- The Lady of the year.
- The Man of the year.
- The Fetishist of the year.
- The International Kinkster of the year.
- The LGBTQI person of the year.
Sadly, it’s been a tough year for us. Political fears erupted and somewhat disrupted our awards. For example, one of the men who reached the final rounds (the awards will be given out at the third annual Hungarian BDSM Conference in November 2018) nearly bit off the head of the jury members who selected him. He interpreted his nomination as someone sneakily trying to expose him to danger, and not the honor it was intended to be.
Another potential candidate refused to accept a nomination in the Fetishist category. He will not explain why but it’s not hard to understand that he, like so many others here, would worry about governmental scrutiny or loss of public reputation if his kink identity was publicly revealed.
Daniel at the II. HunCon, before giving out the Hungarian BDSM Awards (November, 2017.)
On the other hand, with every passing year, we are learning our lessons and building better guidelines and infrastructures to avoid these and other missteps in the nominations and awards processes. I’ve witnessed much upward growth in my years of volunteering. The committee for next year’s award candidates at the IV. BDSM Awards consists of very reliable kinksters who take their responsibilities seriously. They are already doing a wonderful job and I’m confident that the proof of their excellence will be visible to all at next year’s event.
Improvements
While Hungary is a conservative, right-wing country (at least that is our official government position), the Kink Community here is nonetheless improving for us all. The last couple of years, we have held large-scale kinky events that drew participants from all over Europe, and lots of smaller munches and play parties for locals throughout each month.
The biggest events we host are Luxuria and HunCon. The former is a big (350-400 participants) Fetish-BDSM party with several performances on a great stage. HunCon is a three-day long educational event (with over 200 participants) and also hosts two play parties. Last year we welcomed kinky guests from 24 countries at the HunCon, including BDSM/fetish people from Israel, Denmark, the United States, Holland, Bulgaria, Romania, England, and Taiwan. This coming-together of different nationalities forged powerful bonds between us as an international community united by our shared love of BDSM/fetish.
Luxuria Party 2017.
Conclusions
Naturally, if you ask the local kinksters, there will be some disagreement about the state of BDSM in Hungry, Europe and the world. They will point out that ignorance exists worldwide, so why should we deny it? Yet, while hatred and paranoia are still ubiquitous within Hungary and its shadow hangs darkly over the Hungarian kinky community, we have made progress and are now seeing enormous improvement in our ability to socialize, organize and educate.
In addition, we have managed to build great relationships with the Bulgarian, the Romanian and the Dutch Kink Communities, plus with several members of the American and with some members of the Canadian Kink Communities. This too gives me great hope.
We are indeed a post-socialist country with difficult laws and rampant paranoia. But our BDSM Community is flourishing nonetheless.
Solymár, Hungary.
09.25.2018.