| Founder(s) | Mary Frances Berry, Melinda Chateauvert, Richard O. Cunningham, Judy Guerin-Cunningham, Jeffrey Montgomery, and Ricci J. Levy. |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Founded | February, 2003 |
| Location | Washington, DC |
| Key people | Executive Director, Ricci J. Levy |
| Area served | United States |
| Focus | human rights sexual expression sexuality civil rights issues freedom of speech social and political change |
| Method | research, advocacy, public education, social change |
| Motto | Affirming Sexual Freedom as a Fundamental Human Right |
| Website | http://www.woodhullalliance.org |
| Named after suffragist Victoria Woodhull | |
The Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance (WSFA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. WFF is based in Washington DC. The Executive Director and President of the Alliance is Ricci Levy. The Board of Directors are Vincent Andrews, Steven K. Aurand, James Rea, Hardy Haberman, Nina Hartley, and Carol Queen.
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The Alliance holds the vision of a world in which individuals have the ability to develop and express their unique sexuality; where people have personal autonomy with regard to bodily integrity and bodily expression; where every individual has the right to sexual dignity, privacy and consensual sexual expression without societal or governmental interference, coercion or stigmatization.
Founded as the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and Federation, the organization was named for Victoria Woodhull, who was born on September 23, 1838 to a poor family. During a rocky marriage, Victoria began to solidify her commitment to free love, spirituality, and women's rights. Victoria was a stock broker and newspaper editor in the late 19th century.
Victoria ran for President of the United States in the 19th century even though women were not allowed to vote or have any official voice in government. After the unsuccessful attempt at running for President, Victoria began various campaigns to support the right of every person to have fundamental human rights. Victoria believed that everyone had a right to have individual freedom in choosing partners, marrying, and freedom from government intrusion into US citizen's lives.
Most notably Victoria stated the following:
"The uses of government should be to foster, protect and promote the possession of equality. How does the condition of society reply to this standard for government? I Is there anything that even approaches this equality in any various phase of life? I unhesitatingly answer, No! Look where we may...everything is made to turn on the rights of property, and nothing on the rights of humanity. "
"I am a free lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please."
Victoria died June 9, 1927 in England.
Woodhull has a strong record of bringing like-minded voices together to demonstrate and show how to integrate sexual freedom into their work and also in promoting contact with each other, thus bringing strength to the movement. We take on a very important role of facilitator of that work, a role for which Woodhull is uniquely suited. As a valued ally and supporter yourself, you are already aware of this aspect of Woodhull - bringing together allies to give all involved the best possible arguments, reasons and research to integrate and help lead the work of sexual freedom into broader movements and advocacy efforts.
Most recently, Woodhull has established Sexual Freedom Day on September 23, participated in the United Nations Universal Period Review of Human Rights processes in all countries - most notably for the first time this year including the US. They have published the first annual "State of Sexual Freedom in the US, 2010 Report" and are actively engaged in human rights advocacy on a national basis.
WSFA believes that people’s sexual identity and sexual orientation have positive personal and social value. WFF envisions a world where all individuals enjoy personal liberty, freedom of expression, and societal acceptance, and where compassion for others and the right to privacy are embodied in our policies and attitudes toward sexual practices, orientation and expression, as confirmed in the recent Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas.
Ricci Levy has been engaged in sexual freedom activism for more than a decade. After a successful career in corporate America, serving as Senior VP, Director of Operations of CAP Index, Inc. and as President of R. J. Levy Consulting Inc., Levy formally entered the world of non-profit advocacy work as Director of Operations for a national non-profit. In 2002, she helped found The Woodhull Freedom Foundation and Federation, an organization whose mission is to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. As the Executive Director and President of both the Foundation and the Federation, she has been instrumental in Woodhull's growing leadership in the sexual freedom movement.
Levy has testified before Congress and has shared the mission of Woodhull in the media, at conferences and in dialogs with legislators and decision makers all over the country. In partnership with The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Levy was a driving force in establishing a sexual freedom track at Creating Change, the largest annual LGBT political conference in the world. In 2006, under Levy's direction, the first Sexual Freedom Institute was offered at the conference. The institute is now an annual event, as is the youth academy for sexual freedom, also launched by Woodhull.
Levy serves on the Steering Committee of the Free Expression Network (FEN), the Advisory Committee of Causes in Common, a group that brings together activists in the LGBT Liberation and Reproductive Justice Movements, and is on the Advocacy Advisory Committee of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). Levy also serves on the Steering Committee of the Free Expression Network,[1], the Training Committee for the US Human Rights Network (USHRN), and is on the Advocacy Advisory Committee of AASECT.[2]
The Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance encourages the celebration of 23 September as Sexual Freedom Day.[3]
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