Media

For Immediate Release:
September 28, 2004

Contact: Adrienne Verrilli
at: 212-819-9770 x325

SIECUS' 40 Most Influential People in Sexuality and Reproductive Health and Rights*

New York, NY - In honor of our 40th anniversary, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) is pleased to release our list of the 40 most influential people in sexuality and reproductive health and rights. SIECUS took our anniversary as an opportunity to pay tribute to those who have tackled a multitude of important sexuality-related issues including feminism; abortion rights; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning issues and rights; HIV/AIDS; sexual violence; gender and equality issues; and a broader and healthier perspective on sex and sexuality; among others.

SIECUS' 40 most influential people are as follows (listed alphabetically):

1. Judy Blume: (1938)
2. Mary Steichen Calderone: (1904 - 1998)
3. Hillary Clinton: (1947)
4. Anthony Comstock: (1844 - 1915)
5. Simone de Beauvoir: (1908 - 1986)
6. Mary W. Dennett: (1872 - 1947)
7. M. Joycelyn Elders: (1933)
8. Michel Foucault: (1926 - 1984)
9. Sigmund Freud: (1856 - 1939)
10. Betty Friedan: (1921)
11. Alison Gertz: (1966 - 1992)
12. Estelle Griswold: (1900 - 1981)
13. Helen Gurley Brown: (1922)
14. Alan Guttmacher: (1898 - 1974)
15. Hugh Hefner: (1926)
16. Anita Hill: (1956)
17. Alfred Kinsey: (1894 - 1956)
18. Charles Knowlton: (1808 - 1850)
19. Larry Kramer: (1935)
20. Madonna: (1958)
21. Robert Mapplethorpe: (1946 - 1989)
22. William Masters (1915-2001) and Virginia Johnson (1925)
23. Katharine McCormick: (1875 - 1967)
24. Norma McCorvey: (1947)
25. Marilyn Monroe: (1926 - 1962)
26. Georgia O'Keeffe: (1887 - 1985)
27. Alice Paul: (1885 - 1977)
28. Gregory Pincus: (1903 - 1967)
29. John Rock: (1890 - 1984)
30. Eleanor Roosevelt: (1884 - 1962)
31. Rupaul: (1960)
32. Margaret Sanger: (1879 - 1966)
33. Dan Savage: (1965)
34. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: (1815 - 1902)
35. Gloria Steinem: (1934)
36. Faye Wattleton: (1944)
37. Andy Warhol: (1928 - 1987)
38. Ruth Westheimer: (1928)
39. Ryan White: (1971 - 1990)
40. Victoria Woodhull: (1872 - 1927)

To read more about these extraordinary people, go to: http://www.siecus.org/40th_influential_people.pdf.
Additional Top 40 lists include:

* This list was not compiled using any scientific or survey methodology. Instead it represents the influential people who consistently rose to the top in our conversations with each other and with our families and friends.

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