Jefferson Poland
John Jefferson Poland (b. July 12, 1942) was the founder of the Sexual Freedom League in 1963 in New York City. He then moved to the San Francisco Bay area and focused his organizing efforts at the University of California, Berkeley. Poland founded various Sexual Freedom Leagues, including the East Bay Sexual Freedom League, the San Francisco Sexual Freedom League, the Campus Sexual Freedom League, the Berkeley Sexual Freedom League and the San Diego Sexual Freedom League. However, he never tried to run these organizations himself. He would found them and then promptly turn them over to others to run them.
Poland first made national news in August, 1965 with the "Nude Wade-in" led by Poland, aged 23, Ina Saslow, 21, and Shirley Einseidel, 21, at Aquatic Park, a public beach in San Francisco. This event was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle and in Time Magazine.
He turned over his archives to the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley, where they are now available for public viewing by academic researchers. Poland now lives in San Francisco, where he is monitored as a registered sex offender. With his neighborhood, the area surronding the San Francisco Civic Center, there are about 100 people so registered.
Sex offense, flight, and name change
In the early 1980s, Poland was charged with child molestation. Apparently, a nudist couple, including David Irving and his girlfriend, had entrusted Poland with the care of their daughter while they were nude sunbathing on Black's Beach in La Jolla, California near San Diego. Some time later, the nudist couple accused Poland of having performed cunnilingus on their daughter while they were sunbathing.
Poland fled the USA and he lived for five years as a fugitive in Australia until 1988, when he was extradited back to America. By that time he had changed his name legally to "Clitlick". He plead guilty to the felony "lewd or lascivious act with a child" charge. He served about nine months in San Diego County Jail. Upon his release, he returned to live in San Francisco.
See also
Book
- Sex Marchers (with Jefferson Poland, Sam Sloan eds., Elysium, Inc. 1968) ISBN 1881373053
External links
- Sexual Freedom League Collection at the The Kinsey Institute
- California Registered Sex Offender Profile for John Jefferson Poland
- Technical note: The "View on map" button will not work. To browse the on-line map for other registered sex offenders in California, you must start at the Megan's Law home page and check the disclaimer checkbox.