Let’s Talk About Sex

By Emily Anne Espinosa |Staff Writer|

Students and faculty gather together to have a discussion about sex.

Let’s Talk About Sex! was hosted by the Santos Manuel Student Union (SMSU) Cross Cultural Center, Student Health Center (SHC), and Psychology Counseling Center.

Judi Cruz, Health Education Assistant at the SHC, hosted the event.

“We’re not encouraging people to be sexually active, and were not discouraging them,” said Cruz. “This is not a class, this is not a lecture,” continued Cruz.

The event is intended to inform students about sex and how to protect their health by giving awareness to the resources around them and allowing them to engage in a dialogue in a comfortable, safe space.

“Some students want to know about this stuff, but sometimes they don’t have anybody to ask,” said Cruz.

At the event, topics such as consent, sexual assault, birth control, contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), rape culture, and porn were discussed.

“The event is all about safety,” said second year student Cassidy Ranslem.

For the 2015-2016 academic school year, 2,624 supplies, such as contraceptives and birth control, from the health center were dispersed.

At the SHC, 15 positive pregnancy tests, 52 cases of chlamydia, as well as five cases of gonorrhea were found last year.

These numbers only reflect the tests done at the SHC, and do not include tests taken at home, at another center, or other unreported cases.

At the discussion of rape culture, popular music was analyzed and discussed, where music from the ’60s to 2000s are compared to contemporary popular music.

The event ended with an open-discussion lead by students, where students openly asked sex-related questions among their peers.

“It’s always important to know what precautions to take and to be informed when doing anything,” said second-year student Anika Lee.

Some questions asked included the roles of men and women during sex, returning the favor during oral sex, if the number of past sexual partners matter, and if women watch porn.

At the end of the event, 350 goody bags were prepared to distribute after the event if students completed an evaluation survey.

“It’s also another way to get some condoms out there, we’re trying to reduce the number of pregnancies as well as the number of STDs” said Cruz.

The goody bag included candy, condoms, and lubricant.

“Even if they don’t know me, even if they’ve just came on campus for the first time, somebody will say, ‘Oh that’s the condom lady, she’ll give you free condoms,'” said Cruz.

“And it immediately sets that person at ease. If that’s what I do, then I’m comfortable with it. So they’re comfortable with that,” concluded Cruz.

Cruz uses the event to help students become more comfortable with asking questions about sex and picking up supplies when they need them.