Edited by author 06-03-2003 05:00 PM
It's been my tiny contention that the main rockets of investigative journalism didn't really fire until '72 with Watergate. Apres that, the deluge. Nevertheless, with or without the SFL, the late sixties and seventies were promiscuous. And for that, I'm eternally grateful.

Having never heard of Sam Sloan before today, a little investigative journalism reveals much.

It is funny you mention bra-burning in an article about apocryphal reporting, since this itself is a product of shoddy reporting and sensationalism. It never happened. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/burnbra.htm

The inimitible Sam Sloan, one of the creators of the Sexual Freedom League, can be found online at http://www.ishipress.com

Paragraphs?!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR CATS?

Hey when I was in high school I worked on one of the newspapers
and we avoided being beholden to the school by printing the
thing ourselves, off-school grounds, and distributing on the
sly.

This allowed us to make references to the most famous graduate
of the school, Ron Jeremey. (Years before my time.)

Come to think of it, my link is an alias to the article's home site. Sorry. Not like I have ever scrolled through all of it! Sloan is actually a kind of prot-blogger if you think about it - his site has been in that format since about 1995 or 1996. But he doesn't use archives or any content management - I think he just keeps plastering more HTML on, growing his grotesque home page like a hailstone. A really fascinating eccentric. I think he posts most of his stuff in usenet, too.

Christ, couldn't we have been warned about the horrible midi? I don't read pages that play music at me.

Jefferson "Fuck" Poland started the Sexual Freedom League as a political organization. Richard Thorne came along and started the parties that later turned the SFL into a swingers club. I got involved as the co-ordinator somewhere between the two of them. For about l year meetings were held in the 3 bedroom apartment I rented just south and west of Berkely. An old run down Victorian in a very black neighborhood. That was many years ago but I think that was Alameda wasn't it? Anyway Sam Sloan recently contacted me and claims he went on a date with me. I do not remember him at all. According to him he took over the East Bay Sexual freedom League. Maybe? But I am very doubtful. I left the Bay Area and moved to Los Angeles so I have no certainty either way. As a matter of fact I believe Sam Sloan claims to have come to a single meeting I had in my house while in Echo Park. I dont remember him then either but he must have come to that or he would not know of that single meeting. I had at least one of my advice columns for LOVE magazine written up in Playboy magazine. There was also a picture printed of me in LIFE magazine, manning an information table at a college just before I became co-ordinator. I"ve always been very proud of my involvement in SFL seeing it as a pre feminist movement. Had I been born just a few years later I would have been very involved in that movement. The SFL to me was a precursor. To me its basic message was that we humans - especially we women - do not have to feel guilty that we have sexual needs. Nowadays that is a pretty blase and obvious idea but I was raised by a Dad who thoroughly believed the Victorian message that only men have sexual needs and desires. So when I became "boy crazy" I became a WHORE in his mind prety much putting an end to any love between us. 45 years later and my Dad is in his 90s and claims to love me but I can not get over that whore designation. The SFL is where I grew up - recognizing that I was not somehow evil for my utterly natural libido. I think I can honestly credit my involvement in the SFL for saving my self esteem and maybe even my life. I have recently started The Church of Mother Earth and have a web site (www.davidsvernon.com) that gives some of my thinking as it has developed over the years. The web site lists all the songs Dave and I have written together for our album called "Goddesses People". It also gives a rough outline of the principles of natural healing. And finally gives info about the small motel we own in Holtville California called Klassy Karrot Kottages. I would enjoy hearing from any of the early members of SFL - presumably "pre-Sam Sloan" days. . . alireyen@netscape.com Alida Reyenga 5/6/06