Health Fair…Maybe its the category?

As expected, there was extremely low attendance at the health fair on Sunday.   I called this health fair “The Most Ecclectic Health Fair Ever” since its purpose was to bring the bare bones facts of sexuality and its benefits and consequences to the surface.  It was the last event of a 10 day Chicago’s SexFest 2013.  Two confirmed agencies didn’t show — Access Health Care and TPAN.   I put a table out for National Runaway Switchboard who wanted to participate but were short staffed so they sent me pamphlets, promo notepads and hand sanitizers on a hooks.  But, the participants who did show were phenomenal and each a story in itself filling 19 tables in an 80 ft. long gym at the Center on Halsted.  

We began with Veronica, a 25+ year old educator with Cerebral Palsy manning the first table at the Center on Halsted who wants a badge that says, “I’m Veronica and I am sexual.”  Her complaint being that everybody sees her wheelchair but rarely thinks about her humanity so a badge with big bold letters is as loud as she wants to scream the obvious.  We also talked a bit about the many politically correct labels we want to give minorities.  In her case there’s a huge discussion around whether she’d be A Person With Disabilities or a Disabled Person.  She says she’s been thinking about what’s “PC” for some time and can’t decide; it depends on the day. I’m hoping her story comes out more this year before our Chicago SexFest 2014.  

The next table following Veronica was Jin Ngan from Jin & Tonic Health Clinic.  Jin is a certified Chinese Doctor specializing in acupuncture and herbal medicine.    Focusing more on health and fertility, she finds strong connections between the inability to conceive with one’s diet.   She sees deep interactions between food, health and energy, and has always had a particular interest in Tantra but was never able to find a valid source of information.  To her surprise Tantra Nova’s table was directly in front of her on the opposite wall.  ”I’ve always wanted to explore Tantra Nova,” she said.  ”How do YOU know them?”  They’ve been friends of mine for over a decade Jin and in fact donated the show Sexual Enlightenment the night before out of respect for our friendship.  ”THEY did Sexual Enlightenment?  I should have gone…”  Yes, she would have gotten a lot out of it.

Third up was Early2Bed with a sample of each sex toy on sale.  Early2Bed is Chicago’s first Woman-Owned-Sex-Store and actually focuses a great deal on sex education.  Searah and Early To Bed was a major sponsor of Northwestern’s SexWeek the Gender & Sexuality studies puts on every year.  Their Lube was prominently auctioned at many of SexWeek’s functions.  It was pretty funny.

Next up was the delightful young man, Emmanuel tabling for Howard Brown.  As EVERYBODY knows, Howard Brown had some trouble a few years back as it was reported they misdirected funds Northwestern gave them.  Northwestern paid them to assist testing for AIDS and HIV.  It’s true, the funds did get misdirected not into anybody’s greedy pocket, but to services Howard Brown desperately needed.  It was a bad judgment call an executive made, but I’m not so sure I can blame them.  Northwestern pulled their project, demanded their money returned and  Howard Brown nose dived to a near crash, but survived.  Their table clearly showed an operation on a shoestring budget but as vibrant as ever.

In an attempt to develop academic collaborations with SexFest, I had been working with the Northwestern’s Queer Pride Graduate Student Association for about a year.  We were not able to integrate SexFest directly into Queertopia, their annual event, like I’d hoped but we did cross promote on our sites.  Their keynote speaker was Patricia Marino an associate professor from  University of Waterloo in Canada.  Quoting from my Facebook, she said: “Hi! My talk, titled ‘Objectify Me: Sexual Autonomy and the Utopia of Non-Conformity,’ will discuss the possibility of positive sexual objectification. As I see it, objectification can be positive when it’s in accordance with the autonomy of the person choosing to be objectified — that is, when it’s an expression of that person’s free and unconstrained choice. In this talk I try to connect that notion of autonomy with the kinds of options a person has to choose from, and explore how conformist objectification creates societal pressures that transgressive objectification does not. In a nutshell, there are differences between the stripping and flaunting of a gay pride and the stripping and flaunting of Girls Gone Wild, and I aim to analyze some of these. Hope to see you there!”

I attended this lecture offered to SexFest with 5 of my friends.  There were 23 people in audience who heard her fascinating exploration as to whether or not prostitution in itself was the problem.  Reflecting back to Dr. Marino’s talk just the day before, I found the talk eerily relevant as I walked up to Emmaus Ministry’s  table which is strongly anti-prostitution.  Emmaus Ministry reaches out to male prostitutes on the streets who feel its the only way to get a sandwich and a warm 10 minutes in a car on a cold night.  One man I talked to at the table had HIV, was recovering from cancer and brain surgery and said the sexual services he provided were not his choice.  For him, sex work was profoundly damaging to his body, psyche and soul.

I pointed directly across the room to the Sex Workers Outreach Project facing them where feminists were proud of their work as sex workers. Especially strong was Cassandra Avenatti, Social Worker at Children’s Hospital of Chicago and on the board of Sex Worker’s Outreach Project. She felt Emmaus was promoting Sex Workers and Trans in a negative light and it disturbed her.  To make sense of how important SWOP was, Emmaus Ministries should have been at the Screening of the Scarlet Roadon April 5th at Jane Addams Hull House to see the Sex Worker, Rachel Wotton’s work with “the disabled”  (politcal label  notwithstanding).  Perhaps Emmaus Ministry needs to screen The Scarlet Road and work with Cassandra and Veronica on more accurate perceptions of prostitution.  There’s a chance that it’s the misuse of Sex Work that make this career path so dangerous.  In the end Cassandra got their email and was determined to work with them on their perceptions around sexuality… How Rachel Wotton was THAT? I believe this is a dialogue needing to happen and wow I’d love to be part of it.

As a caveat, a man from Emmaus had never heard of Tantra???!!!!??? He was truly in awe of all the sex positive work being done in Chicago and pleasantly surprised as he explored Sins Center and Tantra Nova.

Three of four tables between Emmaus Ministry and SWOP were used by The  Deviant Minds, NFP.  A core constituent is Lauren Zerbst, MSW, a young precocious Social Worker who graduated from Loyola University in 2011 and became a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Service Director for Arbour Health Care facility.   She became extremely fascinated with the idea of sex and mental health in college, and interned with Tantra Nova for over a year starting in 2010.

Lauren has had an enormous influence on The Deviant Minds and even brought her intern another Loyola Social Worker candidate who started embroidering erotica on linen which she and her husband had on display.   Her concept was to understand the influence of erotica on developing healthy perceptions of sexuality and desire.  She brought 10 pieces, sold 5 which paid gas and lunch for their trip from Kenosha.

Julian, an Ohio practitioner of “Sacred Touch” (a facet from a new “Qadishtu” movement) The Deviant Minds espouses, manned our third table with books and DVDs that have heavily our directions.

Drake tabled between Cassandra and Julian.  Dr.  Drake Spaeth is a retired U.S. Airforce Officer who, as a psychotherapist, assisted pilots coming out of Afghanistan with PTSD.  In his work, he discovered “soul retrieval” which he then incorporated into his civilian practice.  He now teaches at the Chicago College of Professional Psychology in downtown Chicago.  His position as a professor gives him the resources he needs to be able to provide services to his clients, one young lady who is a victim of severe sexual abuse, the most recent being from her adoptive father from the time she was 11 to when she married her husband at 21 years of age.  She has found healing through Drake’s practices and he was a provocative addition to the fair.

Children’s Hospital of Chicago created the corner of the U with SWOP, Sex Workers Outreach Project.  SWOP has been working for years to reclaim sex work from criminals that traffik the vulnerable.  I’m hoping I can develop a discussion over the next year to unpack the moral implications of prostitution.  

Next to SWOP was the Howard Area Community Center.  HACC has been a strong support for Howard Street in Roger’s Park, providing the northern border of Chicago.  As sometimes the sole provider of resources for healthcare , food and shelter for the sick and impoverished that live on the edges of the city their services are invaluable and yet continues to be underfunded.  

Tantra Nova tabled next and though they use mystical definitions including energy and enlightenment, their work is anything but mystical.   “The efficacy of Dr. Elsbeth Meuth’s and Freddy Zental Weaver’s work is captured in the 2009 doctor of psychology research thesis The Impact of Tantra on Couples’ Intimacy and Sexual Experience by Meredith E. McMahon of The American School of Professional Psychology of Argosy University, Chicago.”   I believe that by allowing oneself to open to their definitions and application of spiritual concepts to very real-life problems with marriage and sexual education, we begin unpacking the tightly bound conflict our society presently experiences between religion and science.

Next Lynnell Stephani Long tabled on Intersex, bringing a comprehensive understanding of why politcally correct labeling is so helpful for the marginalized.  At this point in our society’s diet of misinformation, acronyms  contribute quick accurate definitions.  Frankly, her message is THE main point in SexFest and to best hear her story in a BLOG she didn’t write, watchLynnell as a main speaker for a symposium at the Five College Women’s Studies Center in Boston where in Part 1 she explains why adding the I to the acronym LGBTQ was so important. Of course I’m telling you the punch line when her talk was so “fabulous” and informative.

Last was BadBeast, director of SinCenter that organized Kinky Kollege.  Out of everyone, he was probably the best prepared.  He was well equipped to thoroughly explain the ins and outs (intend pun only if you want to) of human desire and why this is so important to our well-being.  

Lauren told David after all was finished that we needed a health fair anytime she needed to explain The Deviant Minds, NFP to others.  It’s true.  Our topic is rich and deep and has so many different ways to discuss and experience.  This was a powerful showing but no people. There’s something I can do with this…I know there is.