Swingers descend on Reno for sexuality workshops

RENO, Nev. - There have been no Austin Powers sightings. But thousands of swingers are gathering this weekend to view an erotic art show, attend human sexuality workshops and do, uh, what swingers do.

Just don't call it a "swingers conference" around the chief organizer, Lifestyles Organization founder Robert McGinley, a psychologist from Anaheim, Calif.

"It is NOT a swingers conference. It is NOT a sex conference," McGinley told a group of reporters during an opening briefing Friday.

For the record, it's the "Lifestyles '99 Reno Rendezvous" providing "a wide variety of educational and social programs designed to enhance relationships, promote personal freedom and stress sexual equality."

Workshops range from "Romance on the Internet," "HIV Update," and "Sexual Secrets Demystified" to "Sensual Psychic Connections," "Playing Out Your Fantasies," "500 Unusual Sex Practices," "Growing Up With Kinky Parents" and "Sex Without Guilt: The Morality of Sexual Pluralism."

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There's even one session entitled "Introduction to Swinging ... for experienced and novice swingers alike" - consenting couples who swap spouses or practice other-than-monogamous relationships. It offers tips on how "to handle jealousy, personal hygiene and safe sex."

"A lot of people here are involved in swinging," McGinley conceded. "But the Lifestyles Convention sponsors no sex acts whatsoever. What it does is let people learn about it."

McGinley said that after 30 years of study, he still can't define a "swinger."

"We have nudists here. We have people involved in threesomes. We have people who are plain ordinary couples exploring the possibility of enhancing their relationship" he said.

Janine Hansen, founder of the Nevada Eagle Forum affiliated with conservative Phyllis Schlafly, criticized the convention as reinforcing a negative stereotype of Nevada as the "Sin State."

"It promotes the image that this isn't a stable community," she told the Reno News & Review.

Reno Hilton officials said they'd had only one complaint and that it otherwise was "business as usual" during the convention.

Two mothers from Las Vegas traveling with a gymnastics team of girls ages 10 to 14 said Friday they had persuaded reluctant hotel managers to transfer them to another Hilton hotel across town.

Women wearing see-through outfits with string-bikini underwear were parading through the hotel and casino Thursday night, Linda Levy and Jo Knapp said.

"Never in my 42 years of life have I seen anything like this," Levy said. "It's horrible. It's disgusting. We were never told by the Hilton there'd be anything like this."

Rhett Long, Reno Hilton's vice president for marketing, said the team's tour director had been notified ahead of time and that convention-goers have not acted inappropriately.

"The worst thing they've seen are thong bikinis and those are not against the law," Long said.

Steve Mason, a San Diego psychologist and speaker at the convention, said he thought about half of the 4,000 people at the conference were "swingers."

"A lot of them drop their kids off at the grandparents and they're ready to kick their heels up for the night," said Mason, who first addressed the convention in 1989.

"I was amazed by the smiles on people's faces. They've gotten rid of one of the biggest sources of stress in our lives. They handle sex as a normal part of life," he said.

A topless Mardi Gras ball is scheduled tonight. The artwork at the "sensual and erotic" show ranges from traditional nude paintings and sculptures to more graphic representations some would label pornographic.

McGinley founded the Lifestyles Organization in 1973 with a retreat attended by about 125 in Riverside, Calif. The group moved its convention to Nevada because of continuing legal battle with liquor officers in California who won't allow the erotic art exhibition in the same building with liquor sales.

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