Sexual Freedom League

The Sexual Freedom League was an organization founded in 1963 in New York City by Jefferson Poland and Leo Koch. It existed under the name New York City League for Sexual Freedom to promote and conduct sexual activity among its members and to agitate for political reform, especially for the repeal of laws against abortion and censorship, and had many female leaders.

When Jefferson Poland moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, he started the East Bay Sexual Freedom League there, near the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. Although Poland founded the League, he did not try to establish it as a conventional organization with membership lists, dues and meetings. Instead, he went around establishing various Leagues and allowing others to run them.

The League first made national news in August, 1965 with the "Nude Wade-in" led by Poland, 23, Ina Saslow, 21, and Shirley Einseidel, 21, at Aquatic Park, a public beach in San Francisco. The S.F.L. was featured in an article in Time magazine for March 11, 1966, which attracted thousands of curiosity seekers and a few active participants. In early 1966 Poland transferred the East Bay League to Richard Thorne, who proceeded to organize nude parties, which were thinly disguised sex orgies. Thorne fled to Mexico in the summer of 1966, later changed his name to Ohm and started a religion by that name.

Following Thorne's departure, a rift developed. One faction wanted members to have open meetings and discussions about sex but not actually to engage in sexual relations. The other wanted to continue the tradition of orgies. The non-sex branch was headed by Linda Lindvall and the pro-sex branch by Sam Sloan, a student at the University of California at Berkeley.

Sloan's faction was recognized by UC Berkeley as an official, registered on-campus student organization under the modified name "Campus Sexual Rights Forum," because the Dean of Students would not agree to register it under the name "Sexual Freedom League." The Sloan group set up an S.F.L. information table on campus and distributed literature, held rallies and sold buttons to finance its activities on campus, while holding orgies (mostly involving Berkeley students) off campus. It was featured in articles in Time, Playboy, and Sexology magazines as well as in numerous articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Berkeley Gazette, and the Berkeley Barb.

...
Wikipedia