In May 2015, Philadelphia will host a most unique and first-of-its-kind conference – SEXx Interactive: a Journey for the Mind, Heart and Body. A collective of individuals wanted to organize a conference different in flavor and content from what most individuals think of when they think "Sexuality Conference." Led by GALAEI: a Queer Latin@ Social Justice Organization, SEXx Interactive: a Journey for the Mind, Heart and Body, will take place in Philadelphia May 7-10th, 2015 and follows the wildly successful SEXx event (patterned off of TEDxstyle talks) founded by GALAEI and Dr. Timaree Schmit that was held last year and attracted over 150 participants. It has garnered attention from sex-positive people from across the United States, including: academics, clinicians, artists, activists and regular folks who are simply intrigued. SEXx Interactive includes more than 40 educational presentations, performances, "how-to" workshops, and sexually-themed art exhibitions between Thursday and Sunday.

We sat down and talked with Timaree Schmit:

1) Why now? What about this time period makes Philly the right place to have SexX Interactive?

The first SEXx event showed us we had clearly touched upon something about which people are feeling interested, passionate and excited. SEXx aims to make it easier and easier for folks in our society to talk about sexuality, bodies, social justice and the lived experience of being human. There is a lot of hokum and taboo that still holds us back, but humans are starved for knowledge and celebration about this and increasingly feel empowered to seek it out. Philly is the birthplace of freedom and democracy and we see sexual freedom as being intricately connected to a broader social justice issue.

2) You boast 40 presenters… what are the presentations about? Who are the teachers?

There are so many different topics being covered by such a wide array of presenters. There are dommes talking about safe needle play and academics talking about ethical porn consumption, a sexy local performer is teaching a boylesque workshop and a therapist talking about getting through trauma. We have people talking about writing erotica, HIV, pubic hair, the fat positivity movement, body-safe sex toys, and dealing with jealousy. They come from all sorts of places and their expertise may be from years of study or a life of personal experience.

3) What makes you feel connected to this project?

GALAEI is a queer Latin@ social justice organization with sexual empowerment being a critical piece to their mission. Our SEXx team recognizes the importance of talking about sexuality and giving people the opportunity to explore the subject. GALAEI works with queer people of color whose sexuality is often marginalized, demonized, and seen as invalid. Feeling that you are entitled to know more about your own body and how to connect with it, to experience pleasure and intimacy, to acknowledge publicly that you’re a sexual being: those are all basic rights. But most of us are not taught that we have those rights. We’re taught to judge our bodies, to feel ashamed of what they do and look like. Those ideas keep us from celebrating the full range of human potential, and lack of education leads to negative health outcomes and public health crises. SEXx is part of a sex positive, social-justice oriented movement to spread the message: “everyone has the right to a healthy and pleasurable sex life regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, ability, age, and body type.” 

4) It must be a huge undertaking… who is involved in this project with you?

SEXx Interactive is created by GALAEI with an amazing team of passionate, dedicated, sex-positive people. Elicia Gonzales of GALAEI, of course, is the brains behind the entire endeavor: she came up with both the initial concept and the expansion from a 3-hour event to a 3-day one. She can take an idea and make it happen in real life. I was the co-creator of last year’s SEXx event and consider myself an all-around expert in all things sexuality. Tara Lessard, one of the hardest working activists and photographers in Philly who has been instrumental in getting sponsors and dealing with logistics- really bringing this massive undertaking to life. Katelyn Regan is a graduate Human Sexuality student at Widener and she’s amazing as an organizer. Her brain works so well at taking big tasks and making them bite-sized and manageable. She grinds away at a lot of the details to make everything run really well. Nathan Kuruna, producer of podcast, Sex with Timaree, has been our graphic designer, whipping up flyers and making everything look slick. Susan DiPronio and David Acosta are curating the art pieces and performance facets of the conference, so they’ll be wrangling cats, basically. We’ve got some fantastic sponsors, all of whom are showing their commitment to bringing advancing social justice and sex positivity.

5) What do you hope to achieve by this ground breaking project?

Nothing less than the most fun and thought-provoking weekend possible. we are intentional in making this accessible to all communities- not just an intellectual or academic conference that preaches to the choir. We may not be able to change legislation or public opinion overnight, but we can create a space where people are free to learn, explore, play, laugh and be free for a few days. When someone gets a taste of that: the opportunity to be around other positive, open-minded people who want to grow and expand their understanding of the world, it becomes impossible to go back to being mired in shame and negativism.

For more information – read the Press Release.

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Photo by Jonathan Hernandez