“Ask the Sexperts” educates on an uncomfortable topic

Sex. It’s something not a lot of people like to talk about. Most of our society is afraid to address topics of safe sex or STIs. “Ask the Sexperts” was an event that answered questions people had about, well, really anything that had to do with sex. This was not your high school sex ed class.

The event hosted probably fewer than ten attendees, but those few had some interesting questions. I won’t list them here, but you can guess what they were about. The panel was three women: Michelle Wilson, and family planning expert Erica Henningsen, the Human Sexuality professor here at ACC, and Mia White, a Denver Health worker. All knew their stuff and weren’t really afraid to answer even some of the more “awkward” questions.

The point of the panel, event, and this whole week, has been about sexual health and consent. April is sexual assault awareness month, after all. “Ask the Sexperts” fielded some very uncomfortable questions, but they were necessary ones—questions that may have gone unanswered by parents or friends.

It’s an event that I hope is better attended in the future. Sex is weird and honestly pretty strange if you really think about it, but humans use it to connect to one another, repopulate, and, yes, get pleasure. “Ask the Sexperts” was one of the many ways that schools here and around the country have tried to talk about it more and show people that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions about sexual health, safety and what it means to give and receive consent for sex. Chances are you aren’t the first person to think about it, or the last.

So if you have the odd question burning a hole in your brain, don’t be afraid to ask. It may be awkward, but chances are you’ll be happy you did.