Students Celebrate Safe Sex
By Janiel Suren
Around 100 students attended the Safe Sex Carnival hosted by the Queer Student Union on Oct. 21.
The carnival, aimed at raising awareness and erasing the stigma around sex, consisted of 14 booths with games and activities related to topics on safe sex. Each booth used creative methods to teach students about the topic.
According to Anna LePlatt, president of the Queer Student Union, in previous years the event was hosted in a room in Whitaker Campus Center. This year, the event expanded to the entire building.
“[We] wanted to offer an inclusive sex education experience, and we wanted to make it fun,” LePlatt said. “Everything we learn in sex [education], you are learning here in a fun way.”
The vice president of Community and Inclusivity, Tammi Simpson, called the carnival “the biggest event of the year.”
The 14 booths were presented by Hood College’s clubs and organizations. In attendance were the Latinx Student Union, the Nursing Club, the Campus Activities Board, the Psychology Club, the Feminist Student Union, the Black Student Union, and others.
LePlatt praised the clubs and organizations in attendance. “The clubs show out too. They are so supportive, and they are like, yes, what can I do? They see me running around [and they] ask me what can I do? What do you need?”
The Black Student Union station had trivia questions about sexually transmitted diseases, while another booth taught students the importance of consent. “Every game will teach you something different,” LePlatt said.
One booth showed students how to use a condom correctly. The students showed their mastery by applying a condom to either a banana or a cucumber while timed and blindfolded.
LePlatt said mainstream sex education is geared toward “cisgender” relationships. “Within the queer community, there is not a lot of sex education,” LePlatt said. “Whenever sex education is hot, it’s for [cis] couples and not for queer people.”
The carnival was aimed at the undergraduate student body and was well-represented by students from all grade levels. Eighteen-year-old freshman Elijah James described the event as a “good, informal, and fun way to educate [the students]” and that the event had a “pretty good turnout.”
“Students love [the carnival],” LePlatt said. “If you ask students what their favorite event is, it’s this.”
The event also highlighted minority groups who might go unrepresented. The Latinx Student Union vice president, Alliha Thom said that Latinos, especially women, have a stigma when bringing up sex education because of their cultural and religious background. She said these types of events help steer away from those paradigms.
A Frederick County Health Department official also set up a booth to provide students access to free and instant HIV testing. The official, Kevin Morataya, said students often have a “strong support group” when getting tested. “Students feel better when they come with friends,” Morataya said. A new “fourth generation test” requires testers to give up only four blood drops. The department incentivized students with a $10 gift certificate if they took the test, which only required five minutes of their time. He said around 23 students took the test.
LePlatt said that sexual-related issues arise because of misinformation and that “a lot of Hood College’s students come from rural areas. They either didn’t receive good sex education in high school or they didn’t receive any.”
“They only teach abstinence,” LePlatt said. “They are not supposed to do that.”
QSU’s budget funded this event. “We buy all the prizes. We take a yearly trip to Spencer’s and spend $2,000 on vibrators, and [Hood College] is so supportive,” LePlatt said.
She emphasized the school’s support for these educational events. “If you walk up to other schools and ask, hey, I want to host a carnival with a bunch of penises all over your walls and give out vibrators, they don’t want us to do that,” LePlatt said. “Hood is great and they’re very helpful.”
