Top Stories This Week

• What’s happening at Woodhull;
• Efforts to decriminalize sex work;
• Mandatory internet ID checks in California;
• The shortage of abortion nurses;
• Safe gender-neutral bathrooms;
• Sexual assault in prison; and
• Woodhull’s take on sentencing LGBTQIA+ people to the death penalty. 
  

September is one of our favorite months because it’s 
SEXUAL FREEDOM MONTH! 

Why September?  Victoria Woodhull, our namesake, was born on 9/23, a day officially recognized as Sexual Freedom Day since 2011! It’s a birthday celebration that is too big to limit to one day! 

In honor of this extraordinary month and thanks to the generosity of two of our donors, we have a matching donation of $15,000 for all donations made this month. Your dollars will be doubled, which means the money raised to support our work will take us further in the coming year!

Can you donate to support our work? 

Join us for the September Censorship Series Program!

Sexual freedom in the digital age represents a complex interplay of liberation and censorship, deeply influenced by technological advancements and cultural shifts. The internet has become a pivotal platform for exploring and expressing sexual identities, breaking down traditional barriers, and enabling individuals to connect across diverse sexual orientations and preferences.

Woodhull President & CEO Ricci Levy, General Counsel Larry Walters, and Senior Policy Analyst Allison Grossman, PhD, will discuss what sexual freedom looks like online in 2024 and what lies ahead - no matter who wins the election!  You don't want to miss it!

Woodhull Study Profiled in Reason!

We’re big fans of Elizabeth Nolan Brown’s Sex & Tech Newsletter for Reason Magazine, so we were over the moon when she profiled our research about the impact of online de-platforming on sex workers!

ICYMI - researchers Dr. Samantha Majic and Dr. Melissa Ditmore surveyed over 400 sex workers about the tangible ways that losing access to online platforms like Instagram and Paypal post-FOSTA impacted their lives. Their work was published in the June issue of Social Sciences. It’s open access, so everyone can read it! 

Woodhull COO Featured on The Better Sex Podcast!

We love talking about sexual freedom! Deborah Kat recently invited our COO, Mandy Salley, to join her on her podcast, “The Better Sex Podcast".

They talked about sex education, wacky anti-sex laws, and so much more! Check out their conversation wherever you get your podcasts. Are you a podcaster looking for guests? There’s a lot to discuss as our lawmakers prepare to return to work. Book us for your podcast today!

(ENB/Reason)

At State Legislatures Summit, Groups Lobby for Changes to Sex Work Laws (Reason)
Sex work decriminalization is essential to achieving sexual freedom for all. Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes: “I spent some time last week at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) summit, which attracts state lawmakers and legislative staff from around the country and was held this year in Louisville, Kentucky. The event's expo hall was packed with hundreds of booths, largely featuring the sorts of associations, businesses, and nonprofits you might expect to be trying to influence state policy. Perhaps not as expected was a sex worker rights group. Not as expected, that is, if you don't know anything about Decriminalize Sex Work (DSW). Since its founding in 2018, the organization has been trying to influence state laws surrounding sex work by talking directly to lawmakers and their staff.” Read more.

(Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Victory! California Bill To Impose Mandatory Internet ID Checks Is Dead—It Should Stay That Way (Electronic Frontier Foundation) 

Across the country, censorship bills – including those requiring internet ID checks – are on the rise. Thankfully, Californians have dodged one of these ill-advised bills. Joe Mullin writes: “A.B. 3080 would have required an age verification system, most likely a scanned uploaded government-issued ID, to be erected for any website that had more than 33% ‘sexually explicit’ content. The proposal did not, and could not have, differentiated between sites that are largely graphic sexual content and a huge array of sites that have some content that is appropriate for minors, along with other content that is geared towards adults.” Read more.

(Austen Risolvato/Rewire News Group illustration)

Meet the Organizers Trying to Fix a Shortage of Abortion Nurses (Rewire News Group) 

Accessing our human right to abortion depends on many people – including nurses, who are essential to providing comprehensive, quality care. Sarah DiGregorio writes: “Despite the fact that nurses are the largest group of health-care providers and abortion is one of the most common health-care procedures, nurses’ crucial role in abortion care has often been overlooked and underleveraged. [...] Without a full team, particularly nurses, high-quality abortion care doesn’t exist. The problem—one that has only gotten worse with the fall of Roe v. Wade—is that there are not enough of them.” Read more.

(Barbara Gibson for The 19th)

Could Courthouses Provide the Blueprint for Safe Gender-Neutral Bathrooms? (Them) 

Everyone – everywhere – should be able to use a bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Kate Sosin writes: “[O]ver the years, as states have started to block trans people from using bathrooms and participating in other areas of public life, courtrooms have moved in the opposite direction by trying to make facilities available to people of all genders, experts say. That movement is not only key to providing a roadmap for inclusivity for the nation. It also ensures that juries reflect the general population and that everyone gets the opportunity — or burden, in some cases — of serving on them.” Read more.

(Excerpted from The Warehouse: A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration by James Kilgore and Vic Liu)

Sexual Assault in Prison is Not What TV Tells You. (The Appeal) 

Sexual assault in prison is horrific. It’s also misunderstood. James Kilgore and Vic Liu write: “While PREA has had some impact, incidents of sexual abuse in prison are difficult to quantify. Many go unreported due to shame or fear of retribution. Until 2012, there were few regulations defining sexual assault in prisons. But a directive from the Justice Department in 2012 expanded the ways people in prison could report sexual assault and compelled authorities to investigate every allegation. As a result, reports of sexual assault rose from 8,768 in 2011 to 24,661 in 2015. About 58% of the reported incidents were accusations against staff.” Read more.

(Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm)

Woodhull’s Take: Ending the Marriage Penalty (Woodhull’s Sex & Politics Blog) 

Disability justice and marriage equality are intertwined. We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation share our take on: “‘Will you marry me? Imagine that was a question you could never actually answer,’ says disability rights activist Imani Barbarin, reflecting on the ‘marriage penalty.’ The term describes the legal rule that, as Sage Howard puts it, ‘robs disabled people of a chunk of their supplemental security income (SSI) if they decide to get married.’ The choice, for many, is as follows: get married to the person you love, or protect your access to health care and SSI.” Read more.

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