Workshops divide people by gender, race

Last week's Eroticizing Safer Sex Workshops enjoyed greater attendance than the AIDS Awareness Workshops even though both were part of HIV/AIDS Awareness Week. The Student Health Office of Health Education organized both informational sessions and workshops, which dealt specifically with making safer sex more pleasurable. The organizers planned the sessions so that each workshop was targeted toward people of the same sexual orientation and race to facilitate the flow of discussion. "It was really effective. Different types of people are affected by AIDS in different ways," College junior Keisha Dennard, a member of Facilitating Learning About Sexual Health, one of the event's sponsors said. Heterosexual people would not have been as tolerant of different ideas or issues that were discussed in the workshop for homosexual and bisexual people." she added. Kate Webster, health educator and the primary organizer of the workshops, said she has been criticized for the structure of the workshops. She said that the choice of categories were made in an effort to be "culturally sensitive." "I'm doing something racially sensitive and I'm being criticized. They're preaching to the reformed." she said. Students who attended the workshops said they felt the separation by color and sexual orientation was a good idea. "This made a lot of people who came comfortable since sex is so personal and a lot of the discussion was graphic," College junior You Lee Kim said. "This helped people be open about questions they had in their mind. Webster said the workshops on the whole were a success, and more than 70 women attended the Workshop for Straight Women. There was, however, a noticeably smaller turnout at the sessions for men. "It was really embarrassing to be helping out at these events because there were only five to six men there," Wharton junior Steve Foecking, a FLASH member said. "Maybe everybody gets it -- I don't think so." Webster said. She jokingly added that perhaps the coincidence of AIDS Awareness Week with the Olympics could help account for the low turnout. While both organizers and students said some of the material was already common knowledge, the workshop provided people with a different perspective of the old material. FLASH representatives demonstrated the use of several new methods of protection and different ways of making old methods more enjoyable. "For a lot of women, it was the first time they'd seen a dental dam," Kim said. "They come in bubble gum flavor, too." she added. Webster said that while she was pleased that there was a healthy amount of interest in the workshops, she was concerned about people in the University who are exposed to the risk of infection and did not attend. "It's interesting that people like to say 'I'm not gay, I'm not an IV drug user, I'm not colored. So, therefore, statistically, I'm not likely to get it,' " she said. "On the other hand, there are people on campus shooting steroids and sharing needles who don't consider themselves IV drug users." Webster emphasized the fact that everyone must be aware of the risks of contracting AIDS. "The virus doesn't know who you are. They just hitch rides on blood and semen," she said. She added that she thinks that the University should broaden its program of AIDS education. "We need to be doing something every day, every week and for everyone. Students cannot go to one workshop in February and think they've learned all they have to. It's ongoing." Webster said. This series of seminars was co-sponsored by the Graduate Students Activities Council, FLASH and the Vice Provost for University Life.