Liberate Your Ass: Why Sexual Freedom is Key to Fighting the Right
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Thursday, Jun. 7 3:00 PM
Ends: Thursday, Jun. 7 4:15 PM
Room: Ballroom D
From birth control to same-sex marriage, it’s clear that the right is reinvigorating a culture war on sex and sexual freedom ahead of the 2012 election. We need to fight back with language—and movements—that include and accept a diversity of sexual practices and identities instead of reproducing the casual shaming and marginalization offered by the right. Panelists, ranging from polyamorous organizers to famous sex writers and activists, will lead a raucous and fun discussion of why the progressive movement can only benefit from fully embracing of people who live, love, and—yes—have sex, in radical defiance of existing norms of gender, family and sexual practice.
Moderator
Jenifer Fernandez Ancona
Jenifer Fernandez Ancona is Senior Director of Membership & Communications at Women Donors Network, and has a wide range of experience in communications, donor organizing, strategy development, grassroots organizing, and multi-racial coalition building. She worked most recently as Director of Strategic Communications at Citizen Engagement Laboratory, where she helped to launch and grow progressive online organizing initiatives focused on communities of color, including Presente.org and ColorOfChange.org. Previously, Jenifer served as a Senior Advisor to Steve Phillips and Susan Sandler, as a consultant to the Democracy Alliance, as a top legislative aide in the California State Assembly, and as a news reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Crafting clear communications around a new progressive economic narrative has been a major focus, and her work has included consulting to the Roosevelt Institute, Netroots Nation and National People’s Action.
Other sessions: Ignite @ Netroots Nation, Beyond Occupy: What Does a New Economic System Look Like?
Panelists
Elisabeth Fernandez-Kimmel
Elisabeth advocates for the restoration of the endangered habitats of the island municipality of Vieques (and Puerto Rico in general), the American wilderness, and the American bedroom. At the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, she campaigns for pragmatic solutions in legislature and law enforcement to measures that disproportionately affect women, people of color, and sexual minorities.
She has worked for women in media and the arts; environmental conservation; and im/migrant workers by way of a variety of direct actions and coalition building. She is currently pursuing a J.D. at a renowned public-interest law program.
Charlie Glickman
Charlie Glickman is the Education Program Manager at Good Vibrations, the premiere resource for accurate information and high-quality sex toys, books, and movies, and the editor of Good Vibrations Magazine.
Charlie also writes, blogs, teaches workshops and university courses, presents at conferences, and trains sexuality educators. He’s certified by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and loves geeking out about sex, relationships, sex-positivity, love and shame, communities of erotic affiliation, and sexual practices and techniques of all varieties. Follow him online, on Twitter at @charlieglickman, or on Facebook.
Kierra Johnson
Kierra Johnson is the Executive Director of Choice USA, the leading pro-choice organization working to mobilize and provide support for the diverse, upcoming generation of leaders. Kierra has bolstered the conversation around youth and reproductive justice through her contribution to print, radio, television and online media, including the New York Times, RH Reality Check, Feministing.com, Newsweek,Fox News and National Public Radio.
Haling from the great state of Georgia, Kierra’s journey with Choice USA started when she was awarded the Maxine Waters Reproductive Freedom Fellowship in 2000. Kierra is the 2002 recipient of the Young Women of Achievement Award from the Women’s Information Network (WIN) and now sits on the advisory council for WIN. Ms. Johnson served as a Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and currently serves on the boards of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Center for Community Change.
Favianna Rodriguez
Favianna Rodriguez is a printmaker new media artist based in Oakland, California. Using high-contrast colors and vivid figures, her composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. Whether her subjects are immigrant youth in the U.S. or her own abstract self portraits, Rodriguez brings new audiences into the art world by refocusing the cultural lens. In 2009, Rodriguez co-founded Presente.org, a national online organizing network dedicated to the political empowerment of Latino communities.
Other sessions: The Worst Immigration Law in the United States, Agitation and Inspiration: The Power of Art and Cultural Organizing
William Winters
William Winters helps to create events and experiences for polyamorous communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives with his partner and their three stupid cats. William currently serves as a senior campaigner for Change.org, the nation’s fastest growing platform for social change.
