Bi-Weekly Sexual Freedom Newsletter
Wednesday, February 26, 2020

7 Reasons to Submit a Proposal to #SFS20

Proposal submissions for the Sexual Freedom Summit have been extended to March 1. With less than seven days left, we thought we'd compile the top 7 reasons you should submit a proposal. #3: Bring what is working in your community so we can build more power. “We win by building from what is already working in communities across the country. The Sexual Freedom Summit is an opportunity to teach the lessons you have learned and help others bring it to their own communities.” Read our full list of reasons and then send us your workshop ideas.
Read more

What It's Like to Be a Midwife or Doula Fighting Black Maternal Mortality (Self) 

Nina Bahadur emphasizes the importance of midwives and doulas in the fight against Black maternal mortality: “Midwives and doulas are intimately aware of what’s going on with the birthing families in their communities. They see which clients are struggling to be heard by doctors. They see which families are traumatized by past experiences. They push for legislation. insurance expansion, better access to their services, and cultural changes that will support parents and babies in their communities.”
Read more

Ending Curriculum Violence (Teaching Tolerance) 

Stephanie P. Jones reflects upon her experiences with and research on school-based racial trauma: “In elementary school, my teacher made me pick cotton. She brought each student their own plant, and her goal was to make us understand how hard cotton is to pick. It has only been a couple of years since I began to tell this story in public. [...] My story and many others like it are examples of school-based racial trauma—a type of physical or emotional injury uniquely impacting Black and Brown children in school spaces.” Read more

What’s the Meaning of “Life” When Sentencing Kids? (The Marshall Project) 

As Eli Hager writes, while the Supreme Court ended automatic life without parole for children, in practice, the effects of its decisions remain unclear: “The Supreme Court’s three landmark rulings were Graham v. Florida in 2010, Miller v. Alabama in 2012 and Montgomery v. Louisiana in 2016. They relied on modern neuroscience demonstrating that teens are impulsive, risk-seeking and easily influenced by peer pressure, all traits that can lead them to crime, and that because they are still maturing, they are less likely to commit another crime as they grow up. [...] Yet after the rulings, many prosecutors and judges around the country began simply re-sentencing prisoners who had received automatic life terms to individual terms of 100 years or more—essentially a life sentence by another name.” Read more

Finally, a New Barrier Method Contraception Is on the Horizon (Rewire.News) 

Martha Kempner discusses Ovaprene, a new barrier method contraception: “In the past few decades, a number of new, innovative birth control methods have hit the market. Most of them, however, rely on hormones in one way or another; people who can’t or prefer not to use hormonal methods still have limited options. But a new form of contraception called Ovaprene could become the first new barrier method in nearly 15 years. [...]  If approved by the FDA, Ovaprene would also be the first barrier method capable of working for an entire month.”
Read more

What the Prison-Abolition Movement Wants (Teen Vogue) 

Kim Kelly describes the prison abolitionist movement and its demands: “Prison abolition differs from the prison-reform movement in that its focus is on overhauling the entire system, not making improvements to existing structures—though some abolitionists incorporate elements of reform into their work as a form of harm reduction for the people who are currently in prison. Prison abolitionists call for dismantling the police (and Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and redistributing the resources used to fund them back into housing, health, and economic opportunities for underserved communities who suffer most from systemic inequality and deprivation.” Read more

3 Sexperts on the Art of Queer Masturbation (them.) 

Wren Sanders interviews three sexperts on queer masturbation, including nonbinary porn performer, Jiz Lee, who says: “People of all genders and orientations can enjoy all kinds of sexual sensations. And so ‘queering’ masturbation might simply mean to go with your body's responses as opposed to a cookie-cutter idea of what you think masturbation should be. Sex is unique, or queer if you will, because while some things might be considered ‘common,’ there's really no such thing as ‘normal.’.”
Read more