2021 Impact Report — Woodhull Freedom Foundation

Our Purpose

Woodhull Freedom Foundation was founded in 2003 to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. Since its creation, the organization has served as the leading advocate on issues of sexual freedom within a human rights context, and continues to provide leadership to fuel the movement to sexual freedom.

Woodhull is uniquely positioned to lead on sexual freedom as a fundamental human right.

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Photo of attendees at the Sexual Freedom Summit. — Photo of four people smiling at the camera. Three of the four individuals wear blue t-shirts that read "Medicaid is Sexy." the other individual wears a black tank top that says "sex workers are magic." They have their arms around each other. (Louis Shackleton)

Virtual Summit

Throughout 2021, Woodhull continued to provide an ongoing Virtual Sexual Freedom Summit, something we began because of the pandemic. Through our talented and knowledgeable panelists, we have offered very strong programming again in 2021. Our Summit and other virtual programming is accessible to those with varied abilities and has been offered both synchronously and asynchronously:

The Virtual Sexual Freedom Summit was free.
ASL Interpretation at each session.
Woodhull explored more topics, addressing a wider variety of issues.
Live events were recorded and made available on YouTube for increased accessibility.

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Photo of panelists in the a Virtual Summit program. — 6 panelists are pictured in the frame of their Zoom room. There is a seventh box - the ASL interpreter. The background of the slide is blue. The Virtual Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit logo is in the bottom right hand corner.

Vicki Awards

Established in 2010, the “Vicki” Sexual Freedom Award recognizes those individuals whose life and work embody the Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s mission and values and who have made landmark contributions to the sexual freedom movement through education, advocacy, research, and activism. In 2021, we awarded our 2020 Vicki Awards to Joan Price and Cyndee Clay.

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Photo of Joan Price. Joan has shoulder-length grey hair. She is smiling at the camera. She is wearing a headset with a microphone.

Description (Photo of Cyndee Clay. Cyndee has red hair that goes down to her chest. she is wearing a red polka dot top. Cyndee is smiling. )

Lawsuit Update

We continue to fight for free speech on the Internet. While we call for an end to the abuses associated with all forms of trafficking, we oppose the ineffective and harmful approach taken in the 2018 SESTA- FOSTA law. The Senate’s Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and the House’s Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking (FOSTA) Act have been used to both criminalize sex workers’ rights and to cut free speech. Our attorneys have worked nonstop in the courts for years and will continue this fight into 2022.

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Photo of Woodhull's Legal Team w/ CEO Ricci Levy — Photo of a group of 7 people dressed formally outside of a courtroom. They are all looking at the camera.

Carmen Vásquez
Empowerment Fund

In memory of one of Woodhull’s Co-Founders and co- chair of our Board of Trustees, Woodhull launched the Carmen Vásquez Empowerment Fund to enhance our capacity and to support the next generation of activists in the sexual freedom movement.

Born in Puerto Rico in 1949 and raised in Harlem, Carmen was an activist, writer, and social justice leader. Her leadership role in many organizations was widely respected and she was deeply engaged in many causes including immigration rights and LGBTQ+ health. She died on January 27. 2021.

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Photo of Carmen Vazquez. Carmen wears a tan suit with an orange tie. She is smiling at the camera. Carmen has white short hair and is wearing black rectangular glasses.

Team Training

Loretta Ross provided a private training to Woodhull Ambassadors and the Board of Directors addressing effective outreach, advocacy, equity, messaging and Woodhulls leadership role in the sexual freedom movement. Ross is a nationally acclaimed speaker and academic and Woodhull is proud to have her as a key ally and past board member.

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Photo of Loretta Ross — Loretta Ross sits at a table and looks at the camera. She has long dreadlocks that hang over her torso. She wears a lavender top and patterned headband.

New Accessible Website

In keeping with our commitment to being as accessible as possible in all that we do, and as part of our new website design, we are proud to have been awarded the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired certificate for ADA compliance.

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Logo for the Miami Lighthouse. It is a blue circle with an illustration of a lighthouse and a sun in the middle. There is text on the blue circle around the illustration that reads "Miami Lighthouse ADA Compliance."

Accessibility Consultant

We’re proud to share that Woodhull sought this accountability without the impetus of an ADA complaint or a lawsuit. Accessibility is a right, and we work hard to honor that. Special thanks to our accessibility consultant, Whitney Doyle, who has provided guidance on the website and for our social media and collateral materials.

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Photo of Whitney Harris. Whitney sits at a table with a laptop in front of her. Whitney's hair is brown and long. It hangs over her shoulders. Whitney smiles at the camera and is wearing brown rectangular glasses.

The sexual freedom movement is enormous in scope and comprised of many organizations all working toward similar goals. Woodhull has been deliberate in forming alliances and collaborations with as many of these organizations as our resources allow. We support our allies is by amplifying their work via our own social media and, when there is an opportunity to contribute to each other’s work, by signing on to a wide variety of issues and initiatives and inviting them to sign on to our work. No single organization could hope to address the many issues threatening our fundamental human rights but, together, we can turn one voice into many voices by collaborating on petitions, lawsuits (via amici), letters to Congress and other legislative bodies, etc. This list represents our most recent collaborations with some of our allies.

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Photo of Summit Volunteers — A photo of a large group of people standing and looking at the camera. They stand in front of a banner with the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit logo. They are all wearing lanyards and badges.

OSWC Human Rights Commission

In collaboration with Woodhull, the Oregon Sex Workers’ Committee (OSWC) co-hosted a panel with the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights to explore the impact of sex work decriminalization in the state of Oregon and beyond. Woodhull and the OSWC advocate for decriminalization as an essential component of a public health framework that recognizes and protects the human rights of sex workers. We emphasize that decriminalization is not the end of the road for sex workers’ rights: it’s just one of many important steps in the long pursuit of equity and justice.

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Photo of a "Justice is Blind" statue. The photo is tinted to be blue. It reads "Oregon Sex Workers Human Rights Commission Report of the State of Sex Worker Rights, October 2021).