John Jefferson Poland (July 12, 1942 – November 17, 2017), who sometimes went by Jefferson Fuck Poland and Jefferson Clitlick, was an activist who co-founded the

Sexual Freedom League The Sexual Freedom League (SFL) 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 ...

Early life

Poland was born in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

in 1942. He became a student at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

and majored in sociology. He was expelled from that university in 1960 for his integrationist work with the

Congress for Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...

(CORE). He participated with the

Freedom Riders Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the Racial segregation in the United States, segregated Southern United States, Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of t ...

in Florida and in June 1961 was one of the "Tallahassee Ten" who were arrested for unlawful assembly at a segregated airport restaurant. A year later, he was involved in Ban the Bomb activities. Poland moved to California and worked as an agricultural labor organizer, renting a room in the home of

Dolores Huerta Dolores Huerta (born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activ ...

. He worked with CORE to register black voters in Louisiana in the summer of 1963. Poland participated in one of the first known LGBT rights demonstrations in the United States. Poland, along with organizer

Randy Wicker Randolfe Hayden "Randy" Wicker (born February 3, 1938) is an American author, activist, blogger, and archivist. Notable for his involvement in the early homophile and gay liberation movements, Wicker has documented the early years and many of th ...

and several others, picketed the Whitehall Induction Center in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to protest the US military's exclusion of homosexuals from military service and the violation of confidentiality of gay men's

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

records. Sources differ on the date of this demonstration, with some citing 1963 and others 1964.

Sexual Freedom League

In 1963, Poland founded the Sexual Freedom League in

with Leo Koch. He then moved to the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

Area and focused his organizing efforts near the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

. Poland founded various chapters, including ones in the East Bay, San Francisco,

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

and

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. However, he did not run these organizations himself; he would found them and then turn them over to others. Poland was a graduate student at San Francisco State University. Poland, on August 25, 1965, conducted a "Nude Wade-in" he led with Ina Saslow and Shirley Einseidel at Aquatic Park, a public beach in San Francisco. Poland, calling himself "Jefferson Fuck Poland", had, in 1966, his name legally changed thereto and identifying as

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. While at San Francisco State University, Poland with Blair Paltridge, were connected with a magazine called ''Open Process.'' They were suspended for printing and writing obscene material in the November 14, 1967, issue of the magazine. In 1968, Poland signed the "

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse o ...

" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. Poland was a subject and contributor to the underground newspaper the ''

Berkeley Barb The ''Berkeley Barb'' was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war mov ...

''. Poland, after attempting to attend the Berkeley City Council meeting of September 22, 1970, was arrested and later convicted of disturbing the peace and interfering with a police officer in the line of duty. He served 90 days at Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center near Dublin.

Psychedelic Venus Church

In 1970, Poland founded the ''Psychedelic Venus Church'' (PsyVen or PVC), an offshoot of the Sexual Freedom League, with Mother Boats becoming president. He felt that the leadership of the Sexual Freedom League was becoming too "bourgeois". Each meeting began with smoking marijuana. The meetings continued in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

until 1972. The Church had 700 members by 1971 but disbanded in 1973.

Jefferson Poland Archive

Poland turned over his archives to the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

of the

, where they are now available for public viewing by academic researchers.

Sex offense conviction

By 1980, Poland had moved to San Diego. In 1983, Poland was charged with molesting the 8- or 9-year-old daughter of an acquaintance whom he babysat. Poland fled the country and he lived for five years as a

fugitive A fugitive or runaway is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

in India, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1988, he was arrested in Hawaii. By that time he had changed his last name legally to "Clitlick". He pled no-contest to California Penal Code 288(a), "lewd or lascivious act with a child under 14 years of age," a

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...

, and was sentenced to a year in prison and to register as a sex offender.

Death

Poland died on November 17, 2017, at

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital The Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG) is a public hospital in San Francisco, California, under the purview of the city's San Francisco Department of Public Health, Department of Public Heal ...

Books

* Sex Marchers by Jefferson F. Poland and Sam Sloan (1968) published by Elysium Growth Press, 2nd Edition (2006) by

Ishi Press Richard Bozulich (born 1936) is an American author, publisher of Go (board game), Go books in English and college math instructor. He co-founded the Ishi Press. He has worked with several Japanese Go professional, professional players. He had ...

* ''Second Bite of the Apple'', The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley, Collection number: BANC MSS 70/143 c * ''The Records of the San Francisco Sexual Freedom League'' by Jefferson F. Poland and Valerie Alison,

Olympia Press Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane. It published a mix of erotic fiction and avant-garde literary fiction, and is ...

, 1971,

Notes

Cited texts

* paperback * * * (reprint) * * * * * *

External links

*
Jefferson F. Poland papers, approximately 1965-1973
*
Photographs from the Jefferson F. Poland papersUndated letter from Jefferson Poland to Martin Luther King, Jr.
*
MLK's response date November 16, 1962
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poland, Jefferson 1942 births American LGBTQ rights activists American tax resisters Free love advocates American people convicted of child sexual abuse People from the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ people from Indiana People extradited from Australia Foreign nationals imprisoned in Australia People extradited to the United States American prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of California American cannabis activists 2017 deaths