Ricci Levy, President and CEO of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, discussed the organization's advocacy for sexual freedom as a human right and its intersection with LGBTQ+ rights and sex worker rights. Levy highlighted Woodhull's efforts in challenging censorship, anti-sex-work legislation, and attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, emphasizing the importance of listening to those directly affected by policy decisions.

Advocacy for Sexual Freedom and Human Rights

Ricci Levy has been involved in sexual freedom activism for several decades. After a career in corporate America, Levy helped establish the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, an organization focused on affirming sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. The foundation's mission centers on sexual, gender, and family diversity.

Woodhull operates at the intersection of sexual freedom and human rights, advocating for bodily autonomy, free expression, privacy, and personal liberty. The organization has become a voice against censorship, anti-sex-work legislation, and attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. Levy describes Woodhull's core mission as defending the civil liberties that enable sexual freedom, including free expression, privacy, bodily autonomy, and access to information.

Levy views the defense of sexual freedom as integral to a free society, encompassing the right to speak, learn, organize, access information, explore identity, form relationships, and exist without ideological control from the state. She notes that legislation targeting adult content, LGBTQ+ visibility, and online speech often expands under the banners of "safety," "morality," and "protection," and views these efforts as interconnected. Levy states that laws used to censor pornography are also used to suppress LGBTQ+ visibility, and surveillance systems justified for "child safety" threaten privacy, reproductive freedom, and political dissent.

Levy has testified before Congress and shared Woodhull's mission through media, conferences, and discussions with legislators and decision-makers across the country. Woodhull has received recognition by Proclamation in Washington, D.C., as a leading sexual freedom and human rights organization.

Key Initiatives and Accomplishments

Levy launched Woodhull’s Family Matters Project at the 2012 Sexual Freedom Summit. This project is based on the United States' recognition of the human right to family and aims to establish rights, respect, and recognition for all families by raising public awareness of family diversity. The project includes research, education, and the development and promotion of model policies and legislation to prevent discrimination based on family form.

Among her career accomplishments, Levy highlights the Sexual Freedom Summit, Woodhull’s annual conference, which has evolved from a half-day event into a four-day gathering that features voices often excluded from mainstream policy conversations. She also points to her work advocating internationally in Geneva for the recognition that violence against sex workers constitutes a human rights violation.

Another milestone for Levy was Woodhull's work following the SESTA/FOSTA legislation. Woodhull filed a federal lawsuit challenging the bill, titled Woodhull Freedom Foundation versus the United States of America. Levy recalls the moment the case was called in federal court.

Intersection of LGBTQ+ and Adult Industry Rights

Woodhull's work emphasizes the connection between sexual freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, and sex worker rights. Levy notes that LGBTQ+ communities have historically been targets when governments or corporations seek to regulate "morality," "decency," or "obscenity."

According to Levy, LGBTQ+ creators and performers often face the most severe consequences of censorship systems, including deplatforming, banking discrimination, surveillance, and legislation targeting "adult" content. She explains that queer creators are often moderated more aggressively than heterosexual creators, and trans bodies are frequently treated as inherently sexual by policymakers and platforms. Many LGBTQ+ performers and sex workers depend on digital platforms for income, safety, community, autonomy, and survival.

Woodhull advocates for decriminalization, online privacy protections, and broader free expression rights, and does not treat LGBTQ+ individuals in the adult industry as "politically inconvenient." Levy states that rights become fragile when they are conditional.

Levy observes progress in LGBTQ+ inclusion within the adult industry over the last two decades, particularly in visibility and normalization. She notes that LGBTQ+ performers, including queer, trans, and nonbinary creators, have more control over their narratives. Independent creator platforms contribute to this shift by allowing performers to build businesses on their own terms. However, Levy cautions that visibility alone is insufficient, citing ongoing issues with financial access, legal protections, and long-term stability for LGBTQ+ performers, especially trans creators, who may face inconsistent treatment culturally and algorithmically. She notes that while trans content is celebrated in some spaces, it is segregated, algorithmically suppressed, or treated as inherently "more explicit" than cisgender content in others.

Levy also points out that the broader backlash against LGBTQ+ visibility and DEI initiatives affects entertainment, advertising, tech, and online platforms, which in turn impacts the adult industry.

Levy encourages creators and business owners to engage in advocacy, stating that experiences with censorship, payment processor discrimination, account bans, banking restrictions, age verification laws, stigma, or fear of new legislation are all impacts of public policy and cultural advocacy. She stresses that lawmakers and media outlets often discuss the adult industry without listening to the people affected. Levy advises creators to build relationships with advocacy organizations before crises arise and to recognize the overlap between industry rights and broader civil liberties movements, as the systems affecting adult creators often affect journalists, activists, educators, artists, abortion access advocates, LGBTQ+ communities, and marginalized political speech.

Key Facts

  • Ricci Levy is the President and CEO of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation.
  • The Woodhull Freedom Foundation was founded in 2003.
  • Woodhull advocates for sexual freedom as a fundamental human right, encompassing free expression, privacy, bodily autonomy, and access to information.
  • Levy launched Woodhull’s Family Matters Project at the 2012 Sexual Freedom Summit.
  • Woodhull filed a federal lawsuit, Woodhull Freedom Foundation versus the United States of America, challenging SESTA/FOSTA legislation.
  • Levy will be 80 years old next month.