The Sexual Freedom League was an organization founded in 1963 in New York City by Jefferson Poland. It existed to promote and conduct sexual activity among its members and to agitate for political reform, especially for the repeal of laws against abortion and censorship, and had many female leaders.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Formation 1.2 Split 1.3 Leaving the East Bay 2 Sources and notes

[edit] History

[edit] Formation

When Jefferson Poland moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, he started a League there as well, specifically at the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. Although Poland founded the League, he did not try to establish it as a conventional organization with membership lists, dues and meetings. Instead, he went around establishing various Leagues and allowing others to run them.

The League first made national news in August, 1965 with the "Nude Wade-in" led by Poland, 23, Ina Saslow, 21, and Shirley Einseidel, 21, at Aquatic Park, a public beach in San Francisco. The S.F.L. was featured in an article in Time Magazine for March 11, 1966, which attracted thousands of curiosity seekers and a few active participants. In early 1966 Poland turned over the East Bay League to Richard Thorne, who proceeded to organize nude parties, which were thinly disguised sex orgies. Thorne fled to Mexico in the Summer of 1966 and later changed his name to Ohm and started a religion by that name.

[edit] Split

Following Thorne's departure, a rift developed. One faction wanted members to have open meetings and discussions about sex but not actually to engage in sexual relations. The other wanted to continue the tradition of orgies. The non-sex branch was headed by Linda Lindvall and the pro-sex branch by Sam Sloan, a student at the University of California at Berkeley.

Sloan's faction was recognized by Sproul Hall as an official, registered on-campus student organization under the modified name "Campus Sexual Rights Forum," because the Dean of Students would not agree to register it under the name "Sexual Freedom League." The Sloan group set up an S.F.L. information table on campus and distributed literature, held rallies and sold buttons to finance its activities on campus, while holding orgies (mostly involving Berkeley students) off campus. It was featured in articles in Time, Playboy, and Sexology magazines as well as in numerous articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Berkeley Gazette, and the Berkeley Barb.

The other faction, the East Bay S.F.L., established headquarters in Oakland. Instead of holding nude parties it formed "circles," including the "Horny Men's Circle" and the "Wanton Women's Circle." Even so, the Coordinator (Chairman) of these circles, Lisa Lindvall, also participated in the sex orgies of the campus group. By December, 1966, the East Bay Sexual Freedom League, forced by competition from Sam Sloan's Campus Sexual Freedom League and also by the influence of an article in the September "Back to School" issue of Playboy which Sloan helped to write, started holding nude parties and sex orgies again.

In January 1967, 24-year-old Lindvall suddenly died of cystic fibrosis. Dutch immigrant Alida Reyenga took over as Coordinator, but she often complained that she spent so much time working for the Sexual Freedom League that she had no time left for sex. In the middle of 1967, all of the files and membership records of the East Bay League were appropriated in a putsch by Tom Palmer and Virginia Miller, who formed it as a corporation, kicked out the discussion circles leaving only the nude parties. They also turned the East Bay League into a wife swapping or swinging club, which was an anathema to serious and dedicated freedom leaguers. Later, Tom Palmer committed suicide and another person seized the membership records and tried to turn the East Bay League into a for-profit business.

[edit] Leaving the East Bay

The Campus Sexual Freedom League disappeared when Sloan left town due to an arrest in April 1967. The last of its 28 nude parties took place on Christmas Eve of that year. By then the East Bay League had also folded and Alida Reyenga had moved to Los Angeles, where she took up Scientology.^[1]

While the East Bay versions were dying out, other chapters sprouted up all over California, and the San Francisco Sexual Freedom League emerged at the forefront. It was at first headed by Margo St. James, who claimed to be a "former prostitute" and participated in social activism while she organized sex orgies, then taken over by Frank and Margo Rila. Frank, who edited the Sexual Freedom newspaper, eventually committed suicide.

Margo St. James ran for San Francisco Board of Supervisors many times but all without success. She has often been criticized by anti-sex feminists such as Dorchen Leidholdt.

[edit] Sources and notes

1. ^ Berkeley Daily Gazette Tuesday April 25, 1967 Samuel Howard Sloan, Party host for Sexual Freedom Forum parties at 2714 Telegraph Avenue, was given 12 hours to vacate the premises by Berkeley-Albany Judge George Braun yesterday. Sloan, 22, was arrested by Berkeley police over the weekend for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and for possession of marijuana. Judge Braun ordered the bail reduced on the contributing charge to $550 from $2,200 and to $1,000 on the marijuana charge on the condition Sloan will vacate the "orgy house" across the street from Willard Junior High School and if he will avoid associating with minors at any party involving alcoholic beverages. His case was put over to Monday at 2 pm for plea. The Telegraph Avenue Party Pad was raided by Berkeley police Saturday night, armed with a warrant for Sloan's arrest and a search warrant. Both were issued on the basis of findings made by officers when they arrested two Oakland juveniles who had attended a party at the house and were caught drinking alcohol outside. Sloan told officers he may move his 'operation' to Emeryville. Source: http://www.samsloan.com/orgyhost.jpg

• Sex Marchers (with Jefferson Poland, Sam Sloan eds., first published by Ed Lange and his Elysium, Inc. in 1968), reprinted in 2006 ISBN 0-923891-13-7
• The Records of the San Francisco Sexual Freedom League by Jefferson F. Poland and Valerie Alison with preface by Herbert Gold, Olympia Press, 1971
• Sexual Freedom Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.