Sex-positive Movement Manifesto

We define ourselves by a positive, enabling approach towards safer sex, consent and sexual health as well as sexuality in its many forms and possibilities.

We want to provide a platform to exchange information and share our resources. We believe in free and open source material and we want to provide high-quality and up-to-date information on sex-positivity and its adjacent topics.

The sex-positive movement wants to build a non-profit European association to support sex-positive communities, experts who work in the sex-positive field, as well as for everyone who values our approach.

We stand for open communication, we strive for inclusion and diversity, to create a safe space based on honesty and transparency.

We want to be a voice for sex-positivity, to enable political and legal change to promote and protect our values.

We want to work together on our common goals – to make this world more open, more caring, more inclusive, more sex-positive. We believe that such a world would empower and liberate humans, and also make them happier.

Who we are

We are an open group of people who want to:

• Promote a positive, healthy, joyful, non-judgmental and inclusive way of living and expressing sexuality.
• Be a voice for sex-positivity, to enable political and / or legal change to promote and protect our values.
• Build a non-profit pan-European association for sex-positive individuals and communities; from practitioners who work in the sex-positive field to everyone who values our approach

Our values

We stand for:

• Encouraging a positive, enabling approach towards sexuality in general in its many forms, diversities and possibilities.
• Encouraging and enabling self-aware, autonomous decisions about one’s sexuality.
• Mutual consent and respect as the only acceptable basis of all sexual interactions.
• Personal responsibility, community values and support, and the promotion of creative spaces based on honesty and transparency
• Open, compassionate, empathic, non-violent communication.
• Inclusion and diversity in its various aspects and declinations.
• Creating and establishing a safe, non-judgmental, inclusive and sustainable culture around sexuality and sex-positivity.
• Encouraging safer sex and providing relevant information concerning sexual health.

We DO NOT stand for :

• Any form of exclusion and / or discrimination based on non behavioral factors, misogyny, racism, homo- or transphobia, ableism, ageism, or any other form of prejudice or bigotry.
• Any form of pressure on people to behave or participate in certain ways in order to be accepted as sex-positive.
• Any form of pressure on making decisions coming from authorities, hierarchies, peer groups or that are based on economic dependencies.
• Including groups or communities whose behaviors, ideas or values conflict with our own for the sake with the sole goal of appearing more inclusive.

Our goals

• Creating visibility and presence through the association, our events and communication.
• Providing education and information, through online materials, workshops and at events.
• Establishing a free and open-source platform to: exchange information, access resources, schedule events, network and hold open discussions. If needed, create or co-create an alternative, sex-positive social media platforms.

We are aware that a movement and /communities / society change over time, as do identities and society itself and so its identity. Our vision and hope is to eventually fade into the background as a promoting agent of sex-positivity, as it becomes.

We have the vocation over time to disappear as a promoting agent of sex-positiveness as we hope that this will become the accepted norm of a future society, where, and all human beings can will be able to live and express their sexuality freely and unconditionally, without fear of societal reprisal.

Our Definition of sex-positive:

Sex-positive means that we regard sexuality as a potentially positive element in human life; including an open and welcoming attitude towards its many expressions or consciously chosen non-expressions, along with an awareness regarding sexual health and consent. Our passion is based on our experiencing sexuality as an enriching and empowering force in our own lives.

The Manifesto redacted by the participants of the sex-positive incubators in 2018/2019, tries to concisely reflect our basic values and principles.