Sex-Positive Student Organizations

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Introduction

The people who manage this web site once founded a similarly-named registered student organization at University of Washington, which existed from 1995 until a critical mass of them graduated in 1998. In that spirit, the following guide strives to list all of the sex-positive student organizations within the United States which are (or ever were) formally recognized by their colleges or universities.

Please note that, with very few exceptions, at most the only school funding these groups tend to receive are the same standard allotments from student activity fees which would be granted to any student organization which followed student activities office procedures: in other words, all claims to the contrary, "taxpayer money" is typically not involved.

Organizations

Still Active

• The Sexual Information Center, founded in 1991 at Oberlin College. This group organized Oberlin's annual Safer Sex Night, and apparently still maintains an office for peer counseling.
• Conversio Virium, founded in May 1994 at Columbia University and active almost continuously ever since. This group has a BDSM focus, and hosts discussions, educational presentations, author readings, and informal social events.
• Sex Out Loud, founded in 1995 at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This group offers educational programs on safer sex, relationships, and pleasure, and maintains an office with regular office hours.
• Cuffs, founded in August 2000 at Iowa State University. Similar to Conversio Virium, this group has a BDSM focus, and hosts discussions, educational presentations, and informal social events.
• The Alternative Lifestyle Association (ALA), founded in 2004 at Washington University in St. Louis. BDSM focus.

No Longer Active

• The Campus Sexual Rights Forum at University of California at Berkeley (an organization which was apparently closely allied with the off-campus organization The Berkeley Sexual Freedom League). Apparently most active over 1966-1968. Sex and sexual rights focus.
• Society for Human Sexuality (SHS), existing from March 1995 to late 1998 at University of Washington. Sex-positive focus inclusive of BDSM but not restricted to it. [Note: In early 1999, several of SHS's newly-graduated organizers went on to help found the off-campus non-profit facility The Center for Sex-Positive Culture.]
• Sexual Identities Lifestyle Knowledge (SILK) [note: formerly known as Sexual Minorities Aligned for Community, Education and Support (SM/Aces)], organized in late 1995 at Bard College. BDSM focus.
• The Evangelical Perv Association, founded on May 1, 1996, at Oregon State University. BDSM focus.
• Women Happily Advocating Masturbation (WHAM) was initially founded in 1996 at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was re-organized under different leadership from 2002 until 2004. According to this article, WHAM was a group of "feminists with a sense of humor" which "fights the association of female masturbation with male pleasure and voyeurism."
• RUST, existing from September 1996 to 2001 at Rutgers University. BDSM focus.
• Sweet Entanglements, existing from 2001 to 2002 at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. BDSM focus.
• The Power Exchange, founded in 2001 at The State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. BDSM focus.
• We Honor All Perverts (WHAP), existing from 2002 to 2004 at New York University. BDSM focus.
• Noire, which existed from 2004 to 2005 at Bard College. Noire had a sex-positive focus that was inclusive of BDSM but not restricted to it.

Thoughts

1. This article from Clean Sheets discusses the emergence of new sex-positive student organizations on our nation's campuses, making the point that, "What's perhaps most important is that the newly established sex-positive groups at universities are fundamentally GLBT-friendly." However, it also seems that the GLBT groups at universities are becoming more sex-positive, in a manner perhaps mirroring the growing popularity of pro-sex feminism amongst campus feminist groups (this thought occurred to us while reading the list of programs and presenters for the 2005 Western Regional LGBTQIA College Conference).

2. As can be seen above, well over half of the sex-positive student organizations that have existed to date have had a more-or-less exclusive focus on BDSM. However, it occurs to us that by having the organization's focus be on sex education and sex-positivity in general (1) you are still free to host all the BDSM events you like, (2) you may be able to interest students beyond those curious only about BDSM, and (3) in defending your group you will have an easier time directing the conversation to traditional safer sex education and improving public health (both of which are values already generally accepted within major universities). Anyway, something to consider...

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