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Qualitative Survey on Rape and Voluntary Sexual Activity in US Prisons (2020)
News & Resources: Prison Sex & Prison Rape
Theorizing Consent: Educational and Legal Perspectives on Campus Rape
Highlights on Prisoner Study (2016)
Research on Ancient Greek Tableware & the Roman Age of Marriage
Sexual Citizenship and Human Rights
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Home» News & Resources: Guest editorials
News & Resources: Guest editorials
The William A. Percy Foundation is happy to post guest opinions or reviews of notable books on topics of sexual diversity, rights, law, and history written by qualified scholars, activists, or those who have had contact with the criminal justice system. We offer the option of publishing these writings anonymously as we welcome entries from former incarcerated persons who are legitimately concerned about being targeted by probation or parole officers – as well as submissions representing critical voices among those working within the carceral establishment. These essays – offered in the spirit of sparking discussion – reflect only the views of their authors and not necessarily the opinions or positions of the Percy Foundation or its Board of Directors. If you have a guest editorial, essay, or book review, please send it for consideration by e-mail to wapfoundation@att.net or by mail to our Chico, California, address.
The argument for legalizing prostitution – In the U.S., there are serious problems with rape and with sex trafficking, where persons are forced to engage in sex against their will. At the same time, with the criminalization of sex work, many non-violent persons are arrested and placed in prison for many years. This contributes to high rates of incarceration, huge prison budgets that are a waste of taxpayer dollars, and many destroyed and wasted lives. All of these factors combine to make the rate of sexually-transmitted infections higher than in any other economically advanced nation.
'Whores But Organized': Sex Workers Rally for Reform – from New York Review of Books' blog, an illustrated essay by Molly Crabapple about a rally by sex workers in New York City, showing indications of growing traction for a 'Nordic' model of decriminalization that doesn't simply target male customers. credit: Molly Crabapple / NYRB
The Sexual Politics of Huxley's Brave New World & Orwell's 1984 – What surprising things do the classic 20th-century dystopian novels Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and 1984 (George Orwell) have to say about sexual regulation in the West today? Here's a compilation of quotations and scenes from these works that show the centrality of sexual control to these imaginings of life without freedom.
A homophile magazine that had to fight just for the right to use the US Mail.
Learning from History: Lessons for activism today – The GLBT movement has been one of the most successful social movements in the West in recent generations. Yet the struggle to fight sexual injustices and hysterias – now in new guises – seems greater than ever. Learning from the paths taken by the gay activists – especially from a time when the movement's later success was but a gleam in the eye of a generation unborn – is a good place to start.
Drawing by inmate Billy Thomas
Reflections on a public lynching – A former Federal prisoner reflects on a "reality TV" portrayal of an attempted murder of a prisoner, as a guard and reporters stand by and do nothing.
Voluntary sexual relations among prisoners: One prisoner's experiences – The joys, risks, and paradoxes of sex among prisoners are presented in this fascinating account of one man's experiences in range of U.S. federal institutions.
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Law (ACSOL) is one of the most dynamic organizations working to fight Apartheid-style registries and gulag archipelago of civil commitment – and the oversize contribution irrational and vengeful sex laws make generally to the American carceral state. Here's a detailed report on their third annual conference, held in June 2019 in Los Angeles at Southwestern Law School.
Cory Walgren
The Pedophile as a Folk Devil – In an essay published on OpEdNews.com in September 2019, James Hunter explores the panic and demonization behind the suicide of 16-year-old Illinois high school student Cory Walgren – accused of producing "child porn" after consensually recording intimacy with his girlfriend.
Judith Butler's new book, The Force of Nonviolence (Verso, 2020) prompted a number of interviews with the author – among them, in the New Yorker and The Nation. Here is one reader's reply to the latter interview in particular, discussing Butler's contributions to approaches to sexuality and their relation to the entrenched violence she sees institutionalized in America's carceral state.
Canadian and US gay scholars win 2020 Warren Johansson Prize for anthology about sex on the Internet – The Foundation is pleased to announce Thomas Waugh (Concordia University, emeritus) and Brandon Arroyo (City University of New York, media studies) as the Warren Johansson Prize's inaugural recipients for the anthology they edited, I Confess! Constructing the Sexual Self in the Internet Age (McGill Queens University Press, 2019). READ MORE HERE ...
Chicago writer Yasmin Nair to receive 2020 Charley Shively Prize for Gay Liberation – Over three decades, Chicago-based independent scholar, journalist, and activist Yasmin Nair has produced a body of queer critique unique in its wide compass, analytical clarity, resistance to cant, and Menckenian wit. READ MORE HERE ...
Transgender Wars and the Minor Child – The U.S. and other Anglophone countries have recently seen an exponential increase in young persons and their families pursuing professional therapy to prepare children as young as 12 for sex reassignment through puberty-blocking drugs, hormones, and in some cases even surgery. Credible scientific authorities have sharply varied opinions as to the wisdom of these radical approaches to treating children who present as gender dysphoric, but the full range of informed opinion and evidence is increasingly suppressed by ideological zealotry. READ MORE HERE ...
Guest Editorials – The Foundation is happy to post guest opinion pieces or reviews of notable books on topics of sexual diversity, rights, law, and history written by qualified scholars, activists, or those who have had contact with the criminal justice system. READ MORE HERE ...
Voluntary Sexual Relations Among Prisoners – Skewing male and young, and cut off from relationships and sexual outlets outside, prisoners frequently engage each other in sexual activity. In the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, voluntary sexual relationships are officially forbidden, with those caught often facing severe discipline. But prison administrators also sometimes respond with varying degrees of realism about sex among prisoners. What are the alternatives to prohibition? The articles and anecdotes here discuss the issues involved and offer data on this hard-to-assess and variable phenomenon. READ MORE HERE ...
Prison Sex & Prison Rape – A literature review, covering consensual sex, sexual victimization, conjugal visitation, and more! READ MORE HERE ...
Do Illegal Images Encourage Child Molestation? – Mere possession of child pornography (which includes images to fully sexually mature adolescents) is one of the most rapidly growing offenses prosecuted in the U.S. federal system, earning those convicted an average sentence of 12.5 years (according to Department of Justice statistics). Often, the images in question are old and feature mere nudity, little different from what is found in naturist literature and legitimate art photography. In this brief, a well-known criminologist and expert witness reviews the most recent scholarship on the question, and concludes that there is no credible link between viewing such images and committing hands-on offenses against minors. READ MORE HERE ...
Criminalization of sex workers – or their clients – both violates individual rights and prevents prostitutes and other sex workers from the regulation that has been shown to keep the "oldest profession" safe and offering a living wage. The equation of sex work with "human trafficking" – a concept heavily promoted by Western governments and NGOs but little analyzed – serves to strip sex workers of any volition and presents them as pure victims. The result in recent years has been an intensified regime of surveillance of migrants, travelers generally, sex workers, and customers – as well as large upticks in punishments in the U.S. for completely consensual activities. Sex workers and their allies around the world are organizing to fight for reasonable regulation and legal protection. READ MORE HERE ...
Transgender people face police abuse – While trans issues in the West are prominent in popular consciousness like never before, and legal barriers to fair treatment are tending to fall, police harassment and disregard, together with high levels of criminal victimization, continue. These articles offer an overview. READ MORE HERE ...
Over-the-counter contraception & youth rights – Access to contraception is a fundamental aspect of young persons' ability to make their own sexual choices. The recent articles discussed here present the scope of the problem of inaccessibility of female contraception in the U.S., E.U., and beyond, and as well, the shifting political debates and medical developments touching on the issue. READ MORE HERE ...
Battles over sex-ed – Research shows that giving young people the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions about sexuality leads to better choices, reducing unwanted pregnancies and risk of disease, while opening up space for vital discussions about feelings, relationships, and the range of human sexual responses. With a bias toward abstinence-ed in the U.S., the benefits of sex-ed often are not realized, and GLBT youth are often left out of the picture. The articles here offer an overview. READ MORE HERE ...
Mass incarceration – The U.S. represents 4.4% of the world population, but 22% of its prisoners. Unjust sentences for victimless or merely statutory offenses are a key part of the problem, together with racism and moralism about drugs and sex. Inmates face high levels of physical and sexual assault, and targets are often transgender people and others with disparaged sexual identities. READ MORE HERE ...
Fighting civil commitment – Some 7,000 individuals languish in locked facilities in the U.S. because of Kafka-esque statutes allowing indefinite detention (sex offense civil commitment) when the government has nothing more than a hunch you might in the future do something wrong of a sexual nature. Only a very small number have ever been released, even though the earliest of these facilities have existed as long as 28 years. In at least some states, more have died than have been released. In order to detain an individual for as much as the rest of their lives, the state need not prove any mental illness, only a potentially undefined mental "disorder" or a completely limitless, undefined "mental abnormality." Those who are civilly committed are, according to the Supreme Court, not being "punished," though these detention centers are usually no more than prisons, both in architecture and secured perimeters, and also in operating methods and restrictions and requirements of those confined. In a remarkable series of newsletters, The Legal Pad, a civilly-committed former attorney looks at the legal and social consequences of America's growing extra-legal gulag system. READ MORE HERE ...
Sexual minorities face more violence in prison – Incarceration tends to intensify forms of inequality and injustice prevalent in society. So it's no surprise that sexual and gender minorities often face higher rates of violence and maltreatment in jails and prisons. What's known and how are prisoners and allies taking action? READ MORE HERE ...
Fears about young people's sexuality hinder HPV vaccination efforts – HPV vaccine protects against cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection – a common virus. About one in four people in the U.S. is infected, and some 14 million new infections every year. Encouraging vaccinations among young people is a public health priority, and over time could prevent more than 30,000 U.S. cancer cases a year. But vaccination campaigns face serious resistance and vaccination rates are lower than they should be. What's the problem? READ MORE HERE ...
Book reviews and commentary – What University of Michigan gay scholar David Halperin calls the "War on Sex" is generating more and more critical analysis. READ MORE HERE...
Learning from History: Lessons for activism today – The GLBT movement has been one of the most successful social movements in the West in recent generations. Yet the struggle to fight sexual injustices and hysterias – now in new guises – seems greater than ever. READ MORE HERE ...
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