This town hall was also an opportunity to explore the ways in which coming together, fostering community, and making space for the full expression of our identities and experiences—free from stigma and shame—can transform our wellbeing.

We surveyed those who attended before, and after, the town hall to see if their self-rated knowledge about, comfort with, and openness to discussing sex, sexuality, and sexual health topics changed.

100% of attendees would recommend this and future town halls to their friends and family, and qualitative feedback was positive. In almost all areas, scores significantly increased (e.g. were positively impacted) after the event. The event also increased people’s awareness of the stigma associated with these topics.

See the rest of the results below for yourself!

Scores ranged from 1 (no, not at all) to 5 (yes, all of the time).

Qualitative Event Feedback

Thinking about the event itself: do you feel better informed now about sexual health topics and/or about making positive and protective sexual health decisions for yourself (such as with barrier use, STI testing, and/or the use of sex toys or implements for pleasure)?

“I am definitely more open to the idea of discussing sexual pleasure in an educational sense, because I forgot how confusing or difficult it can be to navigate as an intersex, trans person like myself. Not only was my anatomy different from birth, but I struggled with gender dysphoria during my early adulthood, and both impacted my relationship with pleasure! I had to learn new, and what felt like "weird", ways in order to attain it, but sharing that journey with others in private has always felt empowering so that others don't feel as "alone" as I did.”

“I do! I feel more confident in my own knowledge and ability to communicate that to others, and to model the way I feel about sex and sexuality by talking about it in a neutral, matter of fact way that is aligned with my values and philosophy toward sex, and is responsive to (or at least aware of) stigma and fear around talking about sexuality, but does not reinforce that stigma.”

What did you enjoy most about the event?

“the multiple links at the end, i used nearly everyone to check them out and it made me feel less alone.”

“The variety of speakers from across the country with different experiences and backgrounds.”

“the presenters were terrific - knowledgeable & thoughtful.”

What about the event could have been better/could we improve upon in the future?

“More engagement with participates (survey questions, word clouds, trivia, etc).”

“Nothing I can think of beyond making it longer :)”

“I know this is a hard balance - many voices or more space for fewer - but I would have liked to have more conversation among the presenters so they could get deeper into the topics covered & discuss how their work overlaps & where there are differences.”

“Simply to have more events I can attend! :D”