2016 is almost over: We've made it to December.
When I sent out the October newsletter, I was extremely hopeful we'd be incorporated. October turned out to be a pretty challenging month in terms of my personal life, and then the first half of November hit me pretty hard (as I imagine it did for many of you). I recognize that there are many folks, especially people of color, who have been suffering longer and struggling much harder than I have. I'm trying to use the privilege that I have in some areas (as a white, educated, relatively well-off person) to help other people, while spending time within less-privileged communities I'm a part of (as a non-binary/trans, queer person with a chronic illness) to take care of myself.
My goal is to incorporate the Effing Foundation and make sure our IRS paperwork is submitted before the new administration takes over. (The Free Speech Coalition has an interesting analysis of the sex-negativity likely to come.) I'd like to give a shout-out to volunteer Chris, who's using his nonprofit experience to help improve our strategic plan and other policies as we push through towards incorporation. Thank you!
This month's links offer some cool takes on sex ed:
- I watched Sex(Ed): The Movie with a group of friends recently, and I highly recommend it! It's a hilarious and sometimes sad look at the history of sexual education movies in the US, using clips from many of the over 100,000(!) sex ed films which have been made and interviews with a variety of everyday people. I would have loved to have seen more explicitly trans folks and folks with disabilities, but the filmmakers did include people of a variety of races, genders, ages, and sexual orientations.
- Ashe Vernon's poem "HONORS HUMAN SEXUALITY" is Totally Amazing and well worth a few minutes of your time.
I hope that the rest of 2016 goes well for you, and I look forward to updating you again in 2017. We're still here, together, and I'm grateful for each of you. (Yep, you, reading this right now.) Thank you.
Peace,
~Kit Stubbs, Ph.D.
You can follow the Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity on Tumblr, Facebook, or Twitter. For more sex-positive goodness, check out my personal blog and Twitter (@vortacist).