Dan Massey (December 26, 1942 – January 28, 2013) was an American

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...

/sexual freedom activist, scientist, author, blogger, and fundraiser based in Washington, D.C. He was a co-founder and CEO of VenusPlusX. A graduate of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Graduate School, he spent most of his professional life trying to make peoples' lives better through technology. He and his life partner of 35 years, Alison Gardner, were known for their work "revealing to the public a new concept of the intrinsic value of sex and gender expression, of personal erotic freedom, to replace millennia of unreasoned ignorance, fear, and hatred with the true joy of Love." Through his blog and archived papers on VenusPlusX.org, Massey attempted to provide a vision of the values of the New Age from varied perspectives. On January 28, 2013, Massey died following a brief battle with cancer.

Professional work

Massey's professional activities were in the fields of Computer Science and Information Systems Engineering. He was a graduate of MIT and

. He authored seven books in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Probability & Statistics, and Managing Computers in Business. He was a technology development executive, experienced in distributed simulation, artificial intelligence, mathematical linguistics, experimental psychology and metamathematics, all of which informed his views on the nature, expression, and true purpose of the erotic senses. Massey worked for

BBN Technologies Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company, based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts as Chief Engineer from May 1972 to January 1994. He then went on to work for

Science Applications International Corporation Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in Reston, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support. History The original SAIC was created in 196 ...

in Vienna, Virginia as Senior Scientist from January 1994 until his retirement in January 2011.

Activism

Dan Massey and Alison Gardner at Netroots Nation 2012

The Urantia Book

Massey served for more than two decades on the Executive Committee of the Urantia Book Fellowship as chairman of committees addressing faith outreach, publications, education, and judicial & legal affairs before retiring from this apprenticeship to focus on the cause of freedom and equality. He founded the Urantia Society of Central Connecticut and the author of many articles exploring the content and implications of the Urantia Papers.

LGBT rights activism

Massey was an independent activist committed to liberty, freedom, justice, and equality for all people. With Gardner, Massey co-founded COLUMBIA, a "vision of the future development of human society as it embraces new insights into the essential spiritual value of erotic pleasure". The couple hosted numerous fundraisers and networking events in their home and supported many public LGBT events. They worked closely with local and national organizations, helping forge new alliances and coalitions. Massey was dedicated to "the establishment of total freedom of

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

and

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

as sacred, god-given gifts of divine pleasure and joy to all humanity". Massey was a member of the Advisory Council of

Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance Woodhull Freedom Foundation, also known as Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, is an American non-profit organization founded in 2003 that advocates for sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. The organization is based in Washington, D.C., U ...

, the Policy Advisory Board of

Gender Rights Maryland Gender Rights Maryland is an American civil rights and advocacy organization serving Maryland's transgender community. Gender Rights Maryland's mission is to "aid in the advancement, achievement and protection of the civil rights of transpeople th ...

, and the WikiQueer Global Advisory Board. Gardner remains a member of all three projects.

VenusPlusX

In 2009, Massey and Gardner, co-founded VenusPlusX, the project Massey used to inform and uplift that social system, through education, training, advocacy, and communications to support and accelerate the New Age. VenusPlusX takes its name from a science fiction novel set in a post-gender future (Theodore Sturgeon, 1999), and it draws inspiration from two famous American

androgynous Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics i ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

icons – the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

, and "Columbia" on the Capitol dome.

References

External links

VenusPlusX

Articles by Dan Massey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massey, Dan 1942 births Place of birth missing 2013 deaths American LGBT rights activists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University alumni Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. American sexologists American philosophers American spiritual writers American non-fiction writers New Age writers