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Gay for Good feels the love from Pleasure Chest vibrator sales
Los Angeles Nov 06, 2021
The West Hollywood location of the Pleasure Chest.
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In the immortal words of Clueless’ Cher Horowitz, “Don’t you want to use your popularity for a good cause?” Well, the Pleasure Chest wants you to use its sex positivity for a good cause. In September, the iconic orgasm emporium pledged 15% of that month’s vibrator sales towards Gay For Good, an LGBTQ nonprofit.
“Gay For Good was founded right here in Los Angeles during Prop 8.” explained Anne Friedman, executive director of the SoCal based nonprofit. She was visiting the Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood to receive their donation on behalf of the charity. “The founders were three LGBTQ friends trying to figure out, ‘how can we connect with the broader community if our neighbors are thinking we don’t deserve the same rights to be married? What can we do to change hearts and minds?’ So, they came up with the idea of going out into the community and building bridges through service.”
Gay For Good provides these services, which range from housing to environmental clean up, in 17 cities across the country, including The Pleasure Chests’ hometowns of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Most notably, this charity contributes to an iconic Southern Californian landmark.
“We’re about to be at our 13th year in Runyon Canyon,” said Friedman. “What most people don’t know is that there are Gay For Good volunteers there every year. The trail markers you see, the Smokey the bear sign, a lot of the trees that are there, the sandbagging, that happens because of Gay for Good.”
Being a charity, Gay For Good relies on donations, including over $26,000 contributed by the Pleasure Chest. This partnership entailed the Pleasure Chest donating two weeks of solely its vibrator sales. And although this may not seem like a lot, according to the Pleasure Chest’s owner Brian Robinson, this is a sizable chunk of change.
“Vibrators are the most popular product in the store,” said Robinson. “If we had done leather it wouldn’t have given us the oomph that we needed. People call us the ‘vibrator store,’ so let’s do that.”
Pleasure Chest offers an expansive array of vibrators, which can be intimidating to sex toy neophytes. Fortunately, store manager Jena Carter was more than happy to share her knowledge of air-pulse stimulators, wands, and plugs, like the Rimming Petite.
“There’s beads and a little bit of a motor in it,” Carter described as she pointed out an azure blue butt plug. “It’s meant to simulate rimming, which if you don’t know is the tonguing of the anus, specifically the sphincter.”
Just as the Pleasure Chest supports the LGBTQ community, it also supports all sexual activities, as long as they are consensual and non-harmful.
“As long as you are using things in a safe fashion,” Carter clarified, “you can get pretty creative with your toys.”
Click on the links for The Pleasure Chest and Gay For Good for more info.
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