Carol Jenkins (1945 - January 22, 2008)
Carol Jenkins was a medical anthropologist who worked for many years with the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research and was one of the leading instigators to setting up the National Aids Council. Carol was a founding member of the international editorial advisory board for the journal Culture, Health and Sexuality. She was a pioneer of “respondent driven sampling” in her work with sex workers in Fiji and Cambodia, as well as doing important work on HIV and transgender issues in other parts of the world. Carol set up an award named after her husband, jazz musician Travis Jenkins, which is presented every year to a current or former injecting drug user who has made an outstanding contribution to reducing drug related harm. I wasn’t aware of Carol or her work until I read about her death but from accounts she sounded like a loving person and important ally to those marginalized by their sexual practices, sex related occupations, and sexual identities. And she will clearly be missed by those who knew her personally and professionally.
Read more - EvidenceofCarol: Long live Carol Jenkins
Sol Gordon (1923 – December 1, 2008)
Sol Gordon was Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University where he founded the Institute for Family Research and Education. He was a prolific writer (authoring and co-authoring 28 books and hundreds of papers) and speaker, giving hundreds of lectures and talks to groups large and small across the U.S. and around the world.
Sol was honored with dozens of awards throughout his life for his work from organizations including The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention, The Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Advocates, Planned Parenthood, AASECT, and SIECUS.
Beginning in 1988 Sol transferred his library and collected writings to the Kinsey Institute which now houses these important cultural and educational artifacts.
In a recent interview he said that among the work he was most proud of was a series of comics he produced in the early 1970s about sex, STDs, and drug use (titles included Ten Heavy Facts About Sex That Your Friends Don't Know, Protect Yourself from Becoming an Unwanted Parent, and Capt. Veedee-o and Ms. Wanda Lust in VD Claptrap). A 1972 Time Magazine mention of Sol’s comic books referred to them (not disapprovingly as “overwhelmingly permissive” quoting a few favorite lines: "Masturbation is a normal expression of sex. Enjoy it." If a person wants to be homosexual or bisexual, that's his business. Pornography is harmless. Gordon's only caveats are against sex that is "exploitive" or unprotected by contraception.
He is often cited for his creation of the concept of being an “askable parent” meaning the kind of parent whose kids will ask a question, and equally as important, the kind of parent who will answer.
He was a lifelong advocate for youth, including at risk youth. I remember my one brief interaction with him was a telephone conversation we had while I was researching a documentary about sexuality and young offenders. He was in his late 70s and had been talking about these issues for well over forty years but was engaging, passionate, and generous with his time, which, by all accounts, is exactly how he was his whole life.
Read more - Debra Haffner Remembrance of Sol Gordon
Dorothy Louise 'Del' Martin (1921 – August 27, 2008)
From an obituary published by the National Center for Lesbian Rights:
An eloquent organizer for civil rights, civil liberties, and human dignity, Del Martin created and helped shape the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and feminist movements. She was a woman of extraordinary courage, persistence, intelligence, humor, and fundamental decency, who refused to be silenced by fear and never stopped fighting for equality. Her last public political act, on June 16, 2008, was to marry Phyllis Lyon, her partner of 55 years. They were the first couple to wed in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court recognized that marriage for same-sex couples is a fundamental right in a case brought by plaintiffs including Martin and Lyon.
Martin’s activism went back farther and delved deeper than same sex marriage. She was an early advocate for attention and services for women who were victims of domestic violence, she fought for the removal of homosexuality from the DSM, and in 1995 she and Phyllis Lyon spoke at the White House Conference on Aging and reminded the attendees that queer people grow old too and need to be counted.
Read more - About.com: Dorothy (Del) Martin, 1921-2008
George Carlin (1937 – June 22, 2008)
Comedian George Carlin may not have worked specifically to improve our sexual lives or increase sexual rights, but his groundbreaking and painfully hysterical stand up and writing never strayed too far from sex, and always felt like an honest and genuine attempt to communicate some sort of truth. If you haven’t taken the time to watch some of his work lately, or ever, do yourself a favor and get thee to YouTube.
Read more - New York Times: George Carlin
Bettie Page (1923 - December 11, 2008)
Perhaps the most famous and widely recognized pinup girl, Bettie Page went from model to recluse to cult icon. At the height of her fame she left the public realm and for thirty years lived a private life (one that sounds like it was a struggle). In the past twenty years Page’s influence on a new generation of sexual hipsters and fashionistas occasionally found her granting interviews for newspapers but she never wanted to be photographed. In the New York Times obituary she was quoted as having said ““I want to be remembered as I was when I was young and in my golden times…I want to be remembered as a woman who changed people’s perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form.”
Read more - New York Times Bettie Page
