The Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit began yesterday and continues through Sunday. SisterSong, a group working for reproductive justice, opened the Summit with a day long institute on political power and leadership. Presenters covered a range of topics, from methods and tools for effective political organizing and the intersections of race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality in shaping people’s experiences to the need to expand a reproductive justice conversation beyond access to abortion and birth control to include the ability to parent children in a safe and equitable environment. Not only did the session include the usual scintillating conversation, excellent information, and range of presenters, but participants got to sing and dance with each other as well.
The day ended with a screening of Mr. Angel, the amazing new documentary covering Buck Angel’s life and rise to porn superstardom as the originator of transsexual pornography. The self-styled “man with a pussy” charted his transition from a child and youth haunted by feelings that something was terribly wrong, through a modeling career, drug addiction, suicide attempts, and homelessness, to sobriety and a later transition to a male body. Mr. Angel discussed his medical and personal transition, his work in pornography, and the hysterectomy he recently had to remove his uterus which had atrophied and become infected over his 20 years of testosterone use. A pioneer in his field, Buck Angel and his excellent documentary closed the first day of the Summit with a lively discussion and auctioning a t-shirt emblazoned with “Man with a Pussy” – Angel’s catch phrase. It was an informative, fun, and rousing day, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the Summit.
