**This story contains themes and material that some might find offensive.**
CORNWALL, Ontario – A couple with Cornwall roots that opened a sex-themed bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia is laying low while headlines have screamed across the country.
Word has spread about Euphoria B&B in Stellarton, N.S. that catered to people interested in BDSM and dozens have expressed online messages of support for the owners Kelly McAlear and Leslie Ogle. The pair are originally from Cornwall.
When contacted by Seaway News Ogle said the couple is not commenting on the story.
“It’s not news to us anymore,” she said.
But it is elsewhere. The story has been picked up nationally, with agencies like The Canadian Press and National Post reporting on the matter.
“All you prudes need to get over yourselves,” wrote Bev MacKenzie in a post to Facebook as part of coverage of the issue in the Maritimes. “What goes on behind closed doors is nobody’s business.”
Traci MacDonald Lunn wrote: “None of our business behind closed doors. Get permits and inspections done and all can move on.”
The B&B had operated from September 2015 until last month when police confronted them about not having a permit to operate a home-based business. McAlear and Ogle are now in the process of getting that permit.
Despite online support for the B&B, on Poplar Street – where it is located – things are different. The street passes by a soccer park and seniors apartments before transitioning into an upscale residential area.
Concern centres not so much on what is going on behind closed doors, but who is being brought into their neighbourhood by advertisements from Euphoria B&B.
One neighbour, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said she has no problem with the couple themselves doing what they want in the privacy of their own home.
What bothers her is who the B&B might attract to the area. She said she created a fake account on FetLife, a social network for the kink community, to see who the company was advertising to.
She says she found they are promoting themselves to various groups on the site including one called Daddies and Littles – a group of men interested in women who are of legal age but look and act younger. As a parent of young children, that concerns her.
She said they always noticed that the home where the bed and breakfast was located had a lot of company, but didn’t realize what was going on until a few weeks ago when someone told her about seeing an ad.
With the publicity stories in the media about the bed and breakfast have brought, she said it’s been a steady stream of people driving up and down to see where the house is.
“Now it’s not a quiet neighbourhood anymore.”
She said it frustrates her that people are treating it as a big joke or calling the concerned neighbours prudes.
“It’s different when it’s across the street from you,” she said.
She finds the location of the B&B inappropriate.
“They just moved in a year and a half ago. They could have chosen a place out in the country by themselves, but not in a subdivision.”
She said the neighbourhood is quiet, has very strict covenants and most people want to keep it that way.
The concerned neighbours have had conversations with the town and are looking at the possibility that they might need to get their own lawyer to enforce the covenant since the town legally can’t stop it from operating without banning all B&Bs.
A man in the neighbourhood who has children also said he was against having the B&B because of who might come to the area.
“Call me old fashioned, but a woman getting beat so bad that she’s bruised and this stuff about the Daddies and Littles is very upsetting.”
He said they can say they aren’t going to advertise to these groups anymore but it’s still out there.
“I’m protective of my family,” he said.
Another woman, also requesting anonymity, said she also found it upsetting.
“We moved here to a nice little residential subdivision, not to have a business of any kind across from us. We’re unsettled by it,” she said. “We have to abide by certain bylaws and covenants and everybody else should have to too.”
