Despite a judge’s order, the organizer of “Whipstock” promises the alternative lifestyle event will go on.
Just not in Oakfield Township.
The three-day event — catering to people into dominance and submission, bondage and discipline — will be held at a new but undetermined location Aug. 20-22, organizers said.
Friday, Rockford District Judge Steven Servaas severely limited the number of cars and people that could be at the property of Jewell and Rex Cowan on 11 Mile Road NE, where Whipstock has been held for the last three years, drawing more than 250 people.
Servaas cited zoning restrictions on the property. The issue was brought to the court by Oakfield Township officials after they received complaints from neighbors.
Rex Cowan claims the township’s action is selectively punitive and unconstitutional, but said there will be no appeal — at least not until after Whipstock.
For now, Cowan, 46, said the group is considering several area locations and believes he has a commercially zoned spot that would help avoid the zoning issues encountered in northeastern Kent County, where his home is zoned rural residential.
“I’m confident we will find a location,” Cowan said Tuesday. He said the location will not be revealed until a couple of days before the event, and then only to those who have registered to attend.
Contrary to allegations by neighbors and township officials, who argued the event constitutes a sexually oriented business, Cowan said there are no demonstrations of sex or public sex acts. However, he does not deny that the content of some of the discussions are sexually explicit.
No one has come forward to say they witnessed any sexual activity during the event in past years.
Cowan said the major focus of the event is to raise funds for his organization, Immediate Family Inc.
The organization provides “safehouses,” where people who have experienced abuse or harassment because of their alternative lifestyle can stay for three to seven days, no questions asked, Cowan said.
In seven years, Immediate Family has established 100 safehouses in 50 states, Great Britain and Austria, Cowan said.
“We want to reintroduce these people to society, return them to their families if that’s what they want,” he said.
Cowan said the charity does not generate income. He gets by as a tattoo and piercing specialist and his wife, Jewell Cowan, 33, is a peer counselor.
Forty percent of the funding for the organization comes from Whipstock, where a cover charge and donations cover the event, he said. It costs $60 to register at the door and $35 to pre-register.
The event — limited to 325 people — includes presentations by nationally known “sexual radicals” and gives rules for the demonstrations, which include etiquette for using other people’s “toys” and safe words participants can use to stop the activities if they get too intense.
The event is similar to others around the nation.
Whipstock includes a potluck, raffle, pig roast and usually a wedding. The group’s Web site also says the Kent County Health Department would be offering HIV screening.
Cowan said he realizes linking his charity to something called “Whipstock” has its drawbacks.
“Somebody suggested the name, and it seemed cute at the time,” he said. “Hindsight being 20/20, maybe I would have done it differently.”
He said the people who come to Immediate Family for help — usually women — often need basic assistance and are escaping abusive partners or situations.
The publicity surrounding the Cowan’s court case and the event forced the couple to shut down the safehouse at their Oakfield home, he said. He worries about what his 14-year-old daughter and 4-year-old triplets will face because of what their parents do. He’s not sure if they will remain at their home.
“If one person looks at the Web site and gets help, it will be worth it.”
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