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Where Kinksters and Community Meet: Cold as Hell 2023 Set to Burn Down Stereotypes About HIV and Fetish Community

LGBT Detroit is bringing the wintertime heat your way

Sarah Bricker Hunt

Ignore that thermometer — it’s about to get hot out there!

LGBT Detroit’s fourth annual “Cold as Hell: Fetish Fusion” series is set to premiere Feb. 13 as a virtual presentation on the ColdAsHell.org website. 

The Cold as Hell (CAH) series is the “marquee jewel” of LGBT Detroit’s Togethr campaign, an eight-part, multi-faceted HIV anti-stigma campaign. The event shines a spotlight on the queer kink and fetish community with a special focus on promoting safer, positive queer sexuality among Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ individuals vulnerable to HIV. 

CAH co-host Wolf Pup Saturn says the event is “powerful and important because it centers the marginalized — those being Black bodies and other people of color. It invites communities most disproportionately affected by things like HIV, HIV stigma, sexual and mental health to learn from the kink and leather community.”

Wolf Pup Saturn, whose bio indicates he is a “service pup, gear enthusiast, community builder and ‘gaymer,’” believes there is potential for healing within the kink experience and that it is enormously important to create safe spaces for people of color, especially Black-identifying people. Wolf Pup Saturn’s blog, “Black Men in Gear,” celebrates Black men around the world who love their gear. 

Wolf Pup Saturn will co-host the free CAH event, which features live demonstrations, panel discussions, interactive experiences and an educational “gear show.” In other words, there’s something for everyone intrigued by the kink community, from newbies to veterans. 

The 2023 CAH event will mark co-host Bobby the Fire Marshal’s third year working the event. “[Putting together] this year’s event was special to me,” the Detroit native told Pride Source. “I had a chance to sit on the stage with elders to discuss our personal relations to being a dominant within the leather lifestyle, I got to do some shopping, some good eating, had many laughs, hugs, number exchanges, saw some old friends, and even some cherry popping!” 

Bobby the Fire Marshal. Courtesy photo

“Cold as Hell elevates our voices as Black people, as kinksters, as leather people and as community,” Wolf Pup Saturn added. “Cold as Hell not only shines light on the stigma of HIV, but also kink shame, sexual exploration, consent, awareness, and being true to you! Cold as Hell is hot AF.”

Check out coldashell.org for more information and to view the series on Feb. 13.

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