The spring Sex Fest was held on the Quad this week to celebrate LGBTQIA+ students and representation at URI. PHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Charron | Staff Photographer
The University of Rhode Island’s Gender and Sexuality Center held Sexfest on the Quad on Friday as a part of their week-long LGBGTQ+ Symposium to bring awareness to issues regarding the LGBTQIA+ community and sexuality.
The event was coordinated by the Gender and Sexuality Center’s Director Annie Russell and Emma Rousseau, a sophomore majoring in Gender and Women’s studies.
“The overlying theme is a sex-positive and body-positive event,” Rousseau said. “We just want people to come out and express themselves, and feel good about themselves.”
The event included booths run by the Multicultural Student Services Center (MSSC), Health Services, the URI Police and the Counseling Center. There were other booths, including one for body painting, one where condoms were being handed out and one where students could send a card to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that simply said “gay”. DeSantis recently signed the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill which would prohibit talk of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
“We wanted people to come out and feel comfortable,” she said. “We have information, like obviously trans people might not feel comfortable in the body that they have, but there are ways to help that and we are just trying to make it so everybody loves who they are.”
In addition, there was a booth run by the Gender and Sexuality Center’s high school intern, Katrina W., who had also helped run and plan events for the symposium, such as sex toy bingo, which was held later that night.
“It was a new experience for me because I’m in high school,” she said. “One thing I did was I made calls to people and groups. I talked to PFlag, I talked to Mister Sister, who are the ones who donated for sex toy bingo tonight.”
She acknowledged that it was difficult at first to get involved in the planning and making phone calls as she felt she was uncomfortable reaching out to these organizations, but once she started, she did not feel as uncomfortable.
Some of the groups that she called included Mister Sister, an adult toy store in Providence that donated the prizes for sex toy bingo, and PFLAG, formerly known as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a group that works to support LGBTQ+ children.
According to Ron Richards, the chair of the Rhode Island branch of PLFAG, and Sandra Richards, his wife, who were at the booth, PFLAG was founded 40 years ago to support young gay sons and daughters. As time has gone on, they have expanded their outreach to transgender and non-binary people as well, with outreach expanding across the country during the pandemic.
“The interesting thing for us is that before the pandemic, we were meeting face to face, but our connection was limited to the community we were meeting in Providence,” Ron Richards said. “When the pandemic hit, we went over zoom, and now we connect with people all over the country.”
Ron said that he agreed to Katrina’s request because he wanted to spread the word about LGBTQ+ rights.
Sandra Richards also said that events like these are important as it gives people a platform for education.
“Any opportunity we have to educate people, families or students, about who we are so they know they have a place to come to,” she said.
Rousseau said that these events continue to get good responses from students on campus, with students coming by and being happy that these issues are being talked about more openly.
The LGBTQ+ Symposium will wrap on Thursday, March 31 with the Trans Day of Visibility on the quad from 12-4 p.m.