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Loraine Hutchins Ph.D.
(? - living) U.S.A.

Loraine Hutchins

Author, activist

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A native Washingtonian, Hutchins has always emphasized the inter-connecting issues of race, gender and class in her work and sexual liberation's connection to overall issues of social justice and human rights.

Hutchins was raised a progressive Methodist in the crucible of the civil rights movement and often speaks about how her family's fight for an integrated neighborhood church shaped her early identity. As an adult she became Wiccan and is a solitaire practitioner who names Buddhism, Tantra, Taoism, and all of the world's mystical traditions as part of her roots.

Loraine Hutchins is a founder and leader of the U.S. bisexual rights and liberation movement who has increasingly integrated issues of spirituality into her sexuality education work. She co-edited Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, the anthology that catalyzed the bi movement and is still in print and well-beloved in college courses thirteen years later.

Her 2001 doctoral dissertation, "Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary U.S. Sacred Sexuality Traditions and Trends," offers a queer feminist approach to the variety of sex-positive spiritualities being explored and practiced in the U.S. today. Hutchins is a teacher of sacred sex and works as a sex coach with particular outreach to LGBT, aging, women, and disability populations.

During graduate school she co-led a sacred sex group as part of her internship. An account of this group, "Sacred Flame", is published in the anthology, Blessed Bi Spirit, edited by Deb Kolodny. Her internship also involved launching and directing the highly popular 1998 Washington, D.C., EroSpirit Sacred Sexuality Seminar Series, which was free and open to the public and which she and other presenters are planning to revive in 2004.

She is writing a new book, Harlots & Healers, based on research arising out of her dissertation, that particularly looks at the intersection of roles between sex workers and helping professions. Her dissertation and excerpts from it are available on her website.

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Source: The LGBT Religious Archives Network - http://www.lgbtran.org/Pioneers.asp

Website: http://www.lorainehutchins.com

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