Image: Marsha P. Johnson handing out flyers at NYU

Pride is a Black-Led Protest

This June, we’re looking back on the legacy of Pride. It began in the late 1960s, when LGBTQ2SIA+ community started pushing back against police-led oppression.

The uprising at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco kicked off when a trans woman resisted arrest by throwing coffee on a cop, as recounted in the documentary Screaming Queens. Three years later, The Stonewall Riots continued the fight thanks to leaders like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

Ever since, the Pride movement has continued as protests, demonstrations, and community-led events that center the human rights of all trans, queer, bisexual, gay, lesbian, intersex, two-spirit, asexual, and gender-variant people worldwide.

All Black Lives Matter: This includes queer Black people, trans Black people, disabled Black people, Black sex workers, and particularly Black people who live at the intersection of these and other marginalized identities.

The Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity supports efforts to demilitarize, defund, and dismantle the US police system. We offer full solidarity with the Black community and recognize that dismantling systemic and institutional racism is necessary to affirm the fundamental human rights of Black people.

Hello Friends of Effing,

Sending wishes for health, wellness, and solidarity to all of you as we continue to collectively struggle with the impact of COVID-19. 

Given the toll this has taken on our broader sex-positive community, our Board has agreed that the best thing The Effing Foundation can do is shift our funding opportunities to 2021, rather than open applications in the fall.

The Foundation will continue to provide financial support for our 2020 grantees and deliver resources to you on social media, including regular features from our whole community of 37 sex-positive educators and artists. Much of this work is done by Dom (our Communications Manager) and Li (our Administrator), and we're working to continue to provide them with much-needed income as well.

Photo credit: @ericalovejones

As another Black History Month comes to an end, let’s look to the future by celebrating the Effing grantees who are creating sex-positive resources and a whole lot of joy for the Black community.

Afrosexology

Society gives us a lot of messages about sex, how to have sex, when to have sex, who to have sex with, and how Black bodies should be having sex. To break through these barriers we must be open to conversation. That’s why Dalychia & Rafaella (pictured above) are creating education, exploration, and reclaiming of Black sexuality. through online resources featuring Black people of varying genders and sexual orientations discussing their sexualities.

Afrosexology just launched The Intercourse Project, with the goal of ending generations of secrets, shame and trauma. Watch the latest videos from Afrosexology here.

#BlackTransPrayerBook

The #BlackTransPrayerBook is an interfaith, multi-dimensional, artistic and theological work that collects the stories, poems, prayers, meditations, and incantations of Black Trans & gender non-conforming contributors. The co-editors Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her) and J Mase III (he/him), as Black Trans people, are looking to have a theology that incorporates the fullness of who we are. As beings deserving of care, Black Trans community wishes to claim a radical theology which is honest about our sexual practices.

Pre-order Black Trans Prayer Book today!

Hello Friends of Effing,

Our favorite time of year is here. The air is getting crisp, it’s the season for getting cozy, and best of all – our group of Effing Foundation grantees is growing!

We’re excited to be funding these 20 projects for 2020:

1. 24-Hour Sex Advice-a-Thon, by Francisco Ramirez (he/they; NYC)

Interactive sex advice marathons, hosted by a number of diverse sexuality educators. Think: a one-of-a-kind, up-all-night slumber party with your best new friends!

2. Ask A Sex Worker

An interactive art installation at Nude Night in Orlando and Tampa, produced by SWOP Behind Bars. Sex workers from different segments of the industry will sit at red neon outlined windows, where attendees can ask direct questions about their experiences.

3. The Black Trans Prayer Book, co-edited by J Mase III (he/him; Seattle, WA) and Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her; Washington, DC)

The #BlackTransPrayerBook is an interfaith, multi-dimensional, artistic and theological work that collects the stories, poems, prayers, meditations, and incantations of Black trans and gender non-conforming contributors.

4. Project Blackbird’s #ConsentConscious, by Candace Liger (she/they; Greensboro, NC)

#ConsentConscious hosts healing practice spaces that explore consent, to develop and explore pleasure access points using BDSM/Kink philosophies such as Risk Aware Informed Kink (RACK), and Personal Responsibility Informed Consensual Kink (PRICK).

5. The Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause (Durham, NC)

A multi-media dialogue project seeking to curate and share the experiences, stories, and realities of Black women and femmes over 50. Part of Decolonizing the Crone, this project is a space for exploration, mentorship, intimacy and vulnerability around life, identity and change.

#CallMeJasmin phonebooth

Hello Friends of Effing,

Today is the last day to participate in research about how you talk to health care providers about sex. The information will be used to create a FREE guide to help people communicate openly about sexual health to doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.

ORCHIDS - The Organization for Research of Chronic Illness, Disability, and Sexuality - is conducting this survey, which is available to people over the age of 18 who live in the US or a US territory. You can learn more about them at orchidsresearch.org. 

We’re pleased to announce the launch of The Disability and Sexuality Access Network!

DASANetwork is a community of researchers, practitioners, disabled advocates, allies, students, artists, and more. Their aim is to bring disability-specific issues to the fore of sexology, sexual health services, and sex-positive communities and conversations.

You can support their work by making a tax-deductible donation through The Effing Foundation, becoming a member (it’s free!), and buying their awesome stickers, pictured above. Who wouldn’t love a bumper sticker that says, “If you make it accessible, we will come”? Or “Sexual Education: Don’t fuck with it, don’t fuck without it”? These are timeless messages – and powerful work – we can definitely get behind.

Hello Friends of Effing,

There’s only two weeks left to apply for our next round of funding!

Please send us your sex-positive ideas through our Open Call for Submissions by 11:59 EST on Wednesday, July 31. This one-page survey is quick to fill out, like an elevator pitch about what you do – or what you’re dreaming of doing to create a pleasurable future for all.

Who do we fund?

Education ⁠— Afrosexology by Dalychia & Rafaella, reclaiming Black sexuality through workshops like “Exploring Your Erotic Black Self” and “Opening Communication with Parents & Youth: Continuing Sex Ed at Home”

Community ⁠— Native Youth Sexual Health Network, an organization by and for Indigenous youth that works across issues of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice throughout the United States and Canada

Art ⁠— Survivor Theatre Project, workshops & performances that empower survivors of sexual violence, inclusive of all genders and sexual orientations

Resources ⁠— Dive Deeper with Goddess Cecilia, a video series exploring sex, sexuality, and surviving while swimming between multiple worlds

Writing ⁠— The Black Trans Prayer Book, co-edited by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi and J Mase III. In their words, “As beings deserving of care, we wish to claim a radical theology which is honest about our sexual practices.”

Events ⁠— Sex Ed A Go Go, an informative & entertaining variety show featuring sex educator Dirty Lola and a wide range of guests

More information about who we fund is available in our demographics, grant program FAQ, and list of past recipients. Please note we cannot accept applications from individuals or groups located entirely outside the U.S.

Photo by Adipositivity Project

Happy Pride Month!

Here at The Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity, we’re working toward trans justice and pro-LGBTQIA+ rights year-round.

Our sex-positive movement wouldn’t be what it is today without the trans women of color who have led the way, including Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Miss Major Griffin-Gacy – many of whom were sex workers as well as revolutionary leaders. “Indeed, the fight for LGBTQ rights was and is inseparable from the fight for sex workers’ rights,” says Scott Stern in TIME Magazine. “Both movements insist that the police have no right to tell consenting adults how to use their bodies; both movements demand that the state keep out of marginalized folks’ bedrooms.”

We’re proud to say over half of Effing Foundation grantees are queer, and over one-quarter of the folks we’ve funded are trans and/or non-binary. (See our demographics here.) Our team seeks to prioritize educators, artists, and activists who apply personal experience to sex-positivity. In other words, trans people representing trans sexuality, disabled people representing disabled sexuality, polyam people representing polyam sexuality, and so on.

Does that sound like you or someone you know? There’s one month left to apply for our 2020 grant cycle! Please help us spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to friends, reaching out to your favorite sex-positive org, and sharing our Open Call for Submissions on social media. For more info about our grantmaking process, read our FAQ or listen to it on SoundCloud.

Credit: AORTA Films  "Documenting Desire"

Hello Friends of Effing,

As the U.S. battles ongoing anti-abortion legislation, we’re reminded that reproductive justice is a critical aspect of sex ed. Now more than ever, the country needs sex educators and sex-positive art to address the gaps in information that everyday people – and unfortunately most legislators! – are suffering from. That’s why we fund not only sex ed, but specifically marginalized communities who are often left out of sex ed entirely.

If you really care about reproductive justice, you should care about transgender rights – which happens to be the title of an amazing fact sheet by National Women’s Law Center. It covers how reproductive justice extends beyond debates about reproductive organs, requiring health care access for all trans people, economic justice for trans women, and an end to violence against trans communities everywhere.

Hello Friends of Effing Foundation,

This month marks one year since SESTA/FOSTA, and sex workers continue to feel the impact. Meanwhile, these “anti-trafficking” bills have not been used to protect or end sexual violence in any recent court cases. This fallout makes it clear that this legislation is working as intended, to create barriers for sex workers to meet clients, screen for safety, and be seen as professionals using valuable skills to make an income.

That said, we’d like to remind you that our Open Call for Submissions from sex-positive artists and educators will be available May 1. That’s just ten days away! 🎉

We focus on supporting #ownvoices: that is, people who are members of disadvantaged groups doing work grounded in their experiences, and we prioritize projects that do not have other options for grant funding or government support. Learn more about Effing Foundation grants in our FAQ and Demographic Goals.