Today is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance- a day for vigil and remembering our Transgendered brothers and sisters who have died from anti-transgender violence.

In this time of mobilization around gay rights ballot issues, it is important to remember that lives are at stake, not just marriage. It’s all on the continuum. Thank you to all of you who dare to be true to your heart. Transgender and gender non-conforming people are a huge part of our Babeland community. Your willingness to face hostility and even death, is brave and inspiring and we love you for it. You make a bigger world for all of us.

Please say a prayer for those who have fallen, and for those who do not have the blessings of a supportive community like that we have with each other.

This week in our SoHo store, Babeland hosted a fund raiser with the New Space for Women’s Health, an organization that’s working to create a free-standing childbirth and women’s wellness center in Manhattan. Our co-host was the ever-amazing Ricki Lake, who has, in her own words, “started to really do something with (her) life” since she began spreading the word about natural childbirth. (Be sure to check out her beautiful, inspiring film “The Business of Being Born” at their website.) She seemed as excited to be here as we were to have her!

Ricki, Babeland and the New Space staff welcomed over a hundred and fifty guests from the birthing community, the media, and the world of philanthropy in an effort to raise awareness about the lack of choices women in New York have when it comes to giving birth, and to raise funds for the New Space. It was our first big, swanky, catered, cocktail-dress and tux pants sort of affair, and by all accounts we were a hit! Guests sipped cocktails, mingled and picked up our special New Space kits, partial proceeds of which went to the cause of the night. It seems like sex and childbirth just go together. Surprise!

A Babeland-New Space partnership is obviously a great fit, and not just because sex is a leading cause of childbirth. Just as Babeland intends to help women and men, whoever they are and wherever they are in their lives, love and enjoy their bodies, the New Space intends to create a birthing and wellness center that honors the mother’s body and health and happiness, keeping medical intervention to a minimum. Their inclusiveness appeals to us, too. From their website: “New Space is inclusive and will open its doors to populations who may traditionally feel unwelcome in standard health care facilities including: the working poor; recent immigrants; adolescents; and members of lesbian and transgender communities.” Now that’s health care we can believe in.

Ricki and her partner in film-making Abby Epstein were on their way the next day to interview the midwife of all midwives, Ina May Gaskin, on The Farm in Tennessee, where she has been delivering babies for about 25 years. We picked out a couple of toys to send along, with our love and appreciation. As we shopped, a midwife who knows Ms. Gaskin well mentioned that she has come to understand that “relaxing your sphincters” is one key to opening up and making space for the baby to come out. She calls it the “Sphincter Law”. So Ina May will get the Hitachi Magic Wand, for its time-honored usefulness in relaxation and orgasm and the Pfun Plug, because anyone who appreciates sphincters will likely love the Pfun Plug.

Along with holding fundraisers, the New Space and Babeland are teaming up to relaunch our Sex Moms workshop series in January at our new Brooklyn store. Huge thanks to Ricki Lake, the New Space and all the awesome Babelanders who made this week’s event such a hit!

How did you first hear about Babeland?

I first heard about Toys in Babeland when I moved to the Bay Area in 1999 (from Hawai`i). It has quite a reputation in the queer/dyke community as being the go-to place for toys like harnesses and dildos. And now, queer porn, too.

How do you see Babeland as interacting with the queer porn community?

Babeland is a place for queers! The company never assumes heterosexuality and is open to folks of all genders and orientations. The language used is not limited to a cisexual view of the world, and doesn’t conform to mainstream views of sex. I’ve noticed a lot of great relationships cultivated with movers and shakers of the queer sex-positive community and have seen Babeland’s booths here in San Francisco during Folsom and Pride. I’m personally thrilled that Babeland supports queer pornographer friends of mine who are leaders in the field — Shar Rednour and Jackie Strano of S.I.R. Productions who I’m excited to have recently met to talk about their next project, Morty Diamond (director of Trans Entities - a docuporn staring two dear extraordinary friends of mine), Ken Rowe (the driving force behind Trannywood Pictures), Madison Young (arts-minded pornstar turned phenominal director), and Wendy Delorme who appears in Emilie Jouvet’s Pour Une Nuit.

What is your favorite sex toy?
Ooooh this is difficult. There are so many and it really depends on the situation! My top five (right now) in no particular order: The Hitachi Magic Wand, Njoy’s Eleven, Hemp Rope, any Vixskin Dildo, and Lube!

What is your favorite sex toy to use in a film?
Aslan Leather’s Jaguar Lux Harness — the white leather one, which I think is fucking sexy and looks great against skin. Paired with Vixen Creation’s Buck or Maverick in Caramel. It’s a great combination of a soft and strong harness that looks as awesome as it feels to wear, and same can be said of the Vixskin silicone cocks; they’re the best dildos on earth.