Kat and Layne
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This article is part of 'The Legends Project'
As part of the "Legends Project", Kat Sunlove has been recognized as an BDSM Icon |
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Kat Sunlove and Layne Winklebleck both have master's degrees, professional backgrounds, and had successful careers in public service prior to entering what has become their life’s work together as advocates and activists for sexual freedom. They began their unlikely odyssey together in 1979. In the throes of a hot romance, Layne introduced Kat to the wonders and mysteries of erotic power-play, which for them brought intense sexual magic into an already magical love affair.
At that time, Kat had just started an executive position in a San Francisco agency after leaving her position as Executive Director of a social agency in Tacoma, Washington, the last in a series of successful chapters in a career that had included political campaign work, union organizing, and a year of law school after earning her M.A. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii.
Layne was a Social Work educator, teaching practicum for graduate students as a member of the clinical faculty of the University of Washington School of Social Work, and teaching classroom courses as an instructor for Pacific Lutheran University. Prior to earning his M.S.W. in 1968, Layne was, for several years, a parole officer for the Oregon State Board of Parole and Probation.
Kat and Layne burned professional career bridges when they chose new directions as sex revolutionaries, and they also paid some costs with friends and relations. However, they believed and continue to believe, simply, that the creation of a more loving world requires erotic freedom.
In the meantime, they were also having a lot of fun. The couple conducted workshops called "S/M for Loving Couples"; Kat, in her alter-ego as Mistress Kat, wrote a popular advice column for Spectator Magazine called the "Kat Box"; they volunteered for TV talk shows; they partied and played and in general raised quite a ruckus by being open and available around a previously taboo subject. Living on savings, they made a serious effort to mount a mainstream theatrical production on erotic female dominance, which in the end, despite much support, was a little too risky for investors so that it never made it to the stage.
Eventually, they got jobs working for Spectator Magazine, where Layne became Distribution Manager and Kat became Display Ads Manager. Together they helped grow the magazine, until, in 1987, the then employees of the magazine had a chance to buy ownership of it, which they did. Kat and Layne moved into positions of leadership as Board Directors of the new corporation, with Kat, in due time, taking on the position of CEO and Layne gradually delegating his responsibilities in distribution (stores and news racks) in order to become Editor in Chief. In its heyday in the mid-Nineties, Spectator, a weekly magazine, had 12 full-time employees, numerous part-time route drivers, and grosses of over a million dollars.
Looking back, Kat and Layne can see that they did indeed help the cause of sexual freedom as they shepherded Spectator Magazine through the Eighties and Nineties. Spectator was for many years the primary interface between sex communities and the mainstream public in the Bay Area. The magazine earned the respect of many of the sexual communities, helped provide a voice for sexual minorities, played a part in the empowerment of sex workers, and participated in the often vibrant discourses of the radical sex communities.
In short, the magazine was a player in the evolution of the wonderful tolerance for sexual diversity that exists today in San Francisco. Best of all, because the world looks to that famed Babylon by the Bay city for models of sexual freedom, Kat and Layne, along with other Spectator staff and all the magazine’s contributors and supporters can rightly claim to have helped carry an important message to the world.
Spectator Magazine had a good run for many years but competition from the Internet and legal issues made the magazine increasingly less economically viable. Kat and Layne sold their interest in the magazine in 2001, at which point Kat had already been working for several years as a lobbyist for the Free Speech Coalition, a role that grew naturally out of her work spearheading legal battles and advocating in the California Legislature on behalf of issues championed by Spectator Magazine. She was initially a contract lobbyist, but in time, Kat joined the staff of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and later became the Legislative Affairs Director for FSC.
Kat flourished in the world of politics. She successfully forged excellent relationships in the California Legislature for the politically risky adult entertainment industry. She helped defeat numerous censorious bills, including a “porn tax," as well as an overly broad re-definition of obscenity and certain content-based regulatory schemes. She frequently educated legislators and staff on the distinctions between obscenity and child pornography. She got introduced and passed into law a small business bill in 2004 (AB1894 – Longville), with support from the CA Chamber of Commerce, among others -- a previously unheard of accomplishment for a bill promoted by the adult industry.
Each year Kat conducted a popular and effective “Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days" event in which industry performers, academics and others learned to be citizen lobbyists on behalf of the adult entertainment industry at the same time that legislative staff and members learned about the industry and about the economic benefits brought to the state by the adult industry. In 2005, when the FSC Executive Director was fired for misusing funds, Kat stepped in as acting ED, commuting back and forth from L.A. to home near Sacramento for almost a year in order to salvage the situation.
In the meantime, Layne had also joined the FSC team as Kat’s associate and to research and edit a weekly newsletter as well as a quarterly “Free Speaker" magazine.
Kat and Layne formed many strong and good relationships with friends throughout the sex communities and the adult entertainment industry during their many years at Spectator and Free Speech Coalition. They also learned that the adult entertainment world, like any other field of endeavor, has its share of fools, jokers, intrigue and infighting. They were laid off from FSC in an unfriendly, surprise move that left them shaking their heads. However, they came away with honor intact and optimism for the future.
The couple currently lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains with their dogs Emmy and Whoopie, and their cats Vincent and Lucky.
See also
- Bad Kat comes to K Street
- Fabulous at Fifty
- Free Speech Coalition
- FSC speaks out on Janet Jackson and the Superbowl
- Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition
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