On Feb. 21, the LGBTQA office, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance and the Women’s Center held Queering Sex Ed, an informal platform for all to ask a range of questions about being queer.
Queering Sex Ed has been around on and off every year since 2011, Julia Keleher, director of the LGBTQA office, said. The event has offered a safe space to talk about being queer.
Queering Sex Ed not only discusses sex health, but it also discusses relationships and communication.
“For me in my life, I’ve noticed the difficulties I’ve had as a queer person haven’t been negotiating sex,” Keleher said. “It’s been negotiating relationships, communication and setting boundaries, and talking to partners about myself and what I need to be fulfilled or what I don’t need.”
Ellen Dennis | Argonaut
A panel at the event offered a safe place to talk and discuss sexual identity away from heteronormative scripts. Ranging from healthy communication, using dental dams and asking partners about STI’s before having sex, Queering Sex Ed opened the discussion for a variety of topics.
Panelists included professionals of the University of Idaho from Academic Coaching, LGBTQA office and the Women’s Center as well as the Counseling and Testing Center (CTC).
Dental dams are a barrier made of usually latex or polyurethane used between someone’s mouth and genital during oral sex
“Once a year I think it is important we have at least one discussion on exclusively LGBTQA sexual health, relationships and communication, interpersonal communication,” Keleher said.
When people receive sex education, it can have a heteronormative focus on males and females, Jackie Sedona, program coordinator at the Women’s Center, said.
“It is so important for folks to receive this kind of queer sex ed with throwing all the heteronormative scripts out of the window,” Sedano said. “With specifically Queering Sex Ed, people are writing their own scripts. They’re in LGBTQA relationships and it is going to look a lot different than hetero.”
It is important to have these conversations because they aren’t regularly happening, Sedano said. Especially for people of different backgrounds, sex education looks a lot different. Providing sexual health education for international students, queer students, students of different cultural backgrounds and faiths look different. Providing this space opens an opportunity to meet people’s curiosity and for their own self-education.
Queering Sex Ed provides an opportunity to see queer professional representation, Sedano said.
Emily Pearce | Argonaut
“When I was an undergrad, I liked seeing queer professionals because it let me see my identity be higher up in terms of professionalism,” Sedano said. “I think that this is a good opportunity to show some queer professional representation and show we have staff here who are also in this community who will support you if you need it.”
Because the program has been around for so long, it has become flexible and evolves with the student population it provides for.
When the program first started, it focused more on anatomy and sexual health. There used to be an anatomy presentation, but we are focused more on healthy relationships, Sedano said.
All questions were asked anonymously through an app called Slido. The event is inclusive and doesn’t require anyone to self-identify at the door, Keleher said. All they ask is to be respectful, have an open mind and an open heart for the LGBTQA community.
“With students, we see exactly (what) they are needing and wanting to see from us,” Sedano said. “We want to continue these programs, and our intention is to. They may look a little different. I think we’ll continue with the same formula until we come up with a different idea.”
Emily Pearce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce.
*This article has been updated to reflect Jackie Sedona’s correct name.