National Coalition for Men
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| Founded | 1977 |
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| Founder | Tom Williamson, Naomi Penner |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus | Men's rights, Fathers' rights, Masculism |
| Location |
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Key people
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Harry Crouch, President; Marc Angelucci, Vice-President; Al Rava, Secretary; Deborah Watkins, Treasurer |
| Slogan | "Freeing Men From Discrimination Since..." |
| Website | NCFM.org |
The National Coalition for Men (NCFM), formerly the National Coalition of Free Men, is a non-profit educational and civil rights organization which looks at the ways sex discrimination affects men and boys. The organization has sponsored conferences, adult education, demonstrations and lawsuits. NCFM is the United States' oldest generalist men's rights organization. It professes to being politically neutral, neither conservative nor liberal.
Free Men, Inc. was founded in Columbia, MD in January 1977. The name "Free Men" was used as an imperative (as in Free Men from unfair divorce laws). By-laws were formally adopted in July. The four founding members were: Richard Haddad, Dennis Gilbert, Allan Scheib and Allen Foreman. Richard Haddad authored the "Free Men Philosophy" which included 26 items from which he felt men should be freed. These represented options. The first newsletter was named "Options".
This early chapter concentrated on forming "support groups" for men as counterparts to "consciousness raising groups" tailored to women.
Initial national interest resulted from appearances by author Herb Goldberg, author of the Hazards of Being Male. By 1980, the Free Men. Inc. organization in Columbia had begun to disintegrate. Nevertheless, undaunted by local circumstance in Columbia, others in different parts of the country began forming groups associated with the Maryland organization. Two new groups formed chapters in Boston, Massachusetts (Headed by Frederic Hayward, founder of Men's Rights, Inc. A strong supporter was Robert A. Sides who went on to represent NCFM on national TV/radio talk shows) and Nassau County, New York. The strongest of the two was in Nassau County. As a result, it received all of Free Men, Inc.'s records as it became clear that the Maryland group was going to fold.
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Wikipedia