The exhibition “By and For: 30 Years of Sex Worker Resistance” not only celebrates the struggle for sex worker rights, but the intersectional coordinates of this movement with activism on behalf of other marginalized communities in Canada. The exhibit not only features old news clippings and photographs of marches and symposia, but also a large […]
New Book Gives Insight into Sex Work Decriminalization in New Zealand
Using the techniques of oral history, Cheryl Ware’s recently published book Untold Intimacies: A History of Sex Work in Aotearoa, 1978-2008 (Auckland University Press) tells the engaging personal stories of female and male sex workers in the periods both before and after New Zealand became the first country to effectively decriminalize the practice nationwide in […]
It’s time parents grow up re: sex education
If you know the history of the development of sex education programs then its current failures are not all that surprising. Sex education in the U.S. was born out of the social hygiene movement in the early 1900s. Sex was often chastised as immoral and deviant, and was considered a fast track to disease. Not […]
If you find a 200-year-old condom you probably shouldn’t use it…
An exhibition called “Safe Sex?” about 19th century sex work opened recently at the Netherlands’ national museum. A nearly 200-year-old condom that is adorned with erotic art is one of the fascinating objects that is on display. If you need a break from the onslaught of heavy and depressing sex news as of late, be […]
New Biography on Marsha P. Johnson
Dear readers, take note that on May 20, 2025 Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline is available for purchase. This new work is a biography of beloved transcestor Marsha P. Johnson who was a prominent gay liberation activist and drag queen living in New York City in the 1960s and […]
Histories of sex and sexuality are uber useful right now
Historian Rebecca L. Davis’s Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America was published last year, but journalist Marty Moss-Coane aired a wonderful interview with Davis on her radio show The Connection just last week. We think it’s well worth your time. Davis’ project is an in-depth and vast accounting of sexual […]