By Amena Ahmed
Even though Minnesota requires high schools to teach students about sex education and STI prevention, it’s safe to say the curriculum usually walks a straight and heteronormative line.
This spring, the University is widening that road by offering The Sex Class You Wish You Had, a weekly virtual workshop that offers a sex-positive, educational environment for discussing anything from kinks to non-monogamous and non-heterosexual romance.
The workshop is facilitated by Nina Hernandez Beithon and Dan Piñon of the University of Minnesota’s Student Counseling Services (SCS) in collaboration with Mick Castro of the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (MCAE). The trio aims to create a comfortable environment for people of any race, gender and sexuality.
“Sex education offered in the United States is often rooted in abstinence and shame focused,” Piñon wrote in an email. “That framework can be especially discriminatory for folx who do not identify as cisgender/heterosexual individuals.”
The Sex Ed Class You Wish You Had was created with the premise that any type of person is worthy of pleasure, despite what they were taught in the past.
“We encourage students who want to learn more about sex from a sex-positive, trauma informed, queer/trans friendly lens to come check it out,” Beithon wrote in an email.
To ensure safety and comfort during the workshop, community and confidentiality guidelines are covered at the beginning of every meeting. Participants can remove themselves from discussions of triggering topics that may arise during the workshop and can move into a breakout room with a facilitator if necessary.
The first meeting of The Sex Ed Class You Wish You Had covers sexual health basics. The following weeks branch into more focused topics like pleasure, boundaries and consent, kink week and an opportunity for students to “choose your own adventure.” Students can decide which meetings they do and don’t attend.
Each session includes discussion questions that students may answer anonymously. Attendees may also stay after the group meeting to ask further, more personalized questions.
The workshops meet on Friday from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. until April 7. Interested students can still sign up through this Google Form.
“I hope that folks see themselves reflected in the information we share, and/or gain a new perspective to add to their repertoire of knowledge to empower them to explore ways to understand their bodies, relationships, and pleasure,” Castro said.