Guest blog post written by Troy Capers, UNF LGBT Resource Center Student Staff Member, and Angel R. Kalafatis, Mentor Program Coordinator at UNF LGBT Resource Center (follow her on Twitter and Instagram)
In March 2017, the University of North Florida (UNF) LGBT Resource Center hosted its first Sex Week, a full week committed to workshops designed to educate the campus community on a wide variety of topics including but not limited to: health and wellness, relationships and intimacy, identity and orientation, safety and risk awareness and consent. The six events featured as part of Sex Week 2017 attracted a total of 163 attendees and included week long access to free HIV/STI testing. The testing was administered by JASMYN, UF Cares and AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who collectively administered 110 individual HIV, STI, and/or pregnancy tests.
Surveys sent out post-event returned 57 responses, most of which were supportive and requesting more events like those hosted during sex week more often. “It was very interesting and I learned about many resources on and off campus that I did not know about [before]. They should do this at least twice throughout the year.”
Condoms, Lubricant, and Sexual Health Promotion
Prior to Sex Week, the UNF LGBT Resource Center already featured an impressive array of condoms and lubricants to provide students with accessible tools for safer sex. Through the generous donations of sponsors, including ONE Condoms and others, the Center boosted its inventory with over 10,000 individual units of condoms and lubricant samples. To bolster the atmosphere of sex positivity, staff members and volunteers from the Center and created a condom cake and two tri-fold posters layered with condoms (taped, NOT stapled) that said “Have fun be safe.” Additionally, thanks to myLAB box, we were also able to hand out hundreds of coupons for discounted in-home HIV and STI testing.
Events and Workshops
Campus Safety Panel
Sex Week kicked off with an informational panel about rights and resources on campus regarding sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual violence. The Campus Safety Panel was a collaborative event including representatives from nine different UNF departments. Also featured during the conversation was UNF’s recently implemented Preferred Name Policy, which allows students and staff to officially register a preferred name and, once registered, allows individuals to utilize their preferred name and pronoun in lieu of legal name when it is not necessary for the legal name to be used. Additionally, the panel provided information and Q&A about the Clery Act, Violence Against Women’s Act, Title IX, counseling and mental health services, LGBTQ issues on campus and in the classroom, and general campus safety resources and protocol.
Dulce Garcia
Sex educator and documentary filmmaker Dulce Garcia flew in all the way from California to deliver not one, but two amazing workshops for Sex Week.
The first workshop, “May I kiss you? Sexual Communication and Consent,” was so interactive that we didn’t even have any chairs! Participants were encouraged to learn how to ask explicitly for consent and set up boundaries. Dulce guided attendees through the sources of discomfort in relationships and intimacy and stressed critical points, like the importance of consent in both sexual and nonsexual contexts.
The workshop that followed the next day focused on anti-oppression. Dulce introduced attendees to the fundamental elements of oppression and equipped them with tools for challenging its many manifestations within the context of romantic, platonic, civil and professional relationships.
Navigating NRE
Billy Holder from the Relationship Equality Foundation walked us through basic elements of the science of attraction and New Relationship Energy (NRE) and supplemented that information with personal stories rich with tips avoiding some of the early mistakes of rushing into new relationships.
LGBT 101
Modeled after the center’s popular Speaker’s Bureau series, LGBTQ+ students at UNF were featured on a panel allowing these students to share their stories and engage in real time with questions from attendees. Questions ranged from the general “How do you engage with LGBTQ communities?” to the very, very specific “Given unlimited funds to create it, what would your perfect outfit look like?”
Sex Week’s reach and variety of programming gave UNF students and community members myriad opportunities to learn about LGBTQ+ identities in a fun, inclusive, educational, and sex-positive environment.
Sex Week’s reach and variety of programming gave UNF students and community members myriad opportunities to learn about LGBTQ+ identities in a fun, inclusive, educational, and sex-positive environment.