Leo Francis Koch was a professor of biology at the University of Illinois, whose 1960 letter to the Daily Illini

Daily Illini

The Daily Illini, commonly known as the DI, is an independent, student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1871...

defending premarital sex

Premarital sex

Premarital sex is sexual activity, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex, practiced by persons who are unmarried. Although it has always been practiced, in the West it has increased in prevalence since the mid-1950s...

 provoked public outrage and prompted his firing from the university by President David Dodds Henry. Henry called the letter "offensive and repugnant." The UI Board of Trustees supported Henry, while the University of Illinois Senate voted to reprimand Koch but not to censure him. The firing and Koch's subsequent battle to be reinstated became a sensation in the press. Illinois was censured by the American Association of University Professors

American Association of University Professors

The American Association of University Professors is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership is about 47,000, with over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations...

 for the ouster. Koch appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

, who both refused to grant him a hearing.

Following his dismissal from Illinois, Koch met free love

Free love

The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...

 advocate Jefferson Poland

Jefferson Poland

John Jefferson Poland is the founder of the Sexual Freedom League, and a registered sex offender.-Sexual Freedom League:In 1963, he founded the Sexual Freedom League in New York City with Leo Koch. He then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and focused his organizing efforts at the University of...

, and together they founded the Sexual Freedom League

Sexual Freedom League

The Sexual Freedom League was an organization founded in 1963 in New York City by Jefferson Poland and Leo Koch. It existed to promote and conduct sexual activity among its members and to agitate for political reform, especially for the repeal of laws against abortion and censorship, and had many...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Letter to Daily Illini

Koch wrote his letter in response to an article in the Daily Illini criticizing campus heavy petting parties. The response said in part:

...the events described are... symptoms of a serious social malaise... caused by the hypocritical and downright inhumane moral standards engendered by a Christian code... already decrepit in the age of Queen Victoria... With modern contraceptives and medical advice readily available... there is no valid reason why sexual intercourse should not be condoned among those sufficiently mature to engage in it without social consequences and without violating their own codes of morality and ethics.

The letter ended by saying:

A mutually satisfactory sexual experience would eliminate the need for many hours of frustrating petting and lead to happier and longer lasting marriages among our young men and women.

Further reading

• "Making out is its own reward," a 2010 article by Roger Ebert
  Roger Ebert
  Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
  
  on the controversy

External links

• "The Leo Koch Case," a compendium of relevant sources provided by the University of Illinois.