The Sexual Health Awareness Group (SHAG) hosted its annual Sex Week through virtual events and tabling dur-ing the week of Oct. 26.

This year, the events were hosted early to accommodate the accelerated fall term.

“Traditionally, we’ve done Sex Week the first week of November, but this year we wanted to make sure that people wouldn’t be too stressed out by the end of the term and finals to attend events,” said vice president Joey Dickinson, ‘22.

“Because we were looking at a different week than we normally do, I thought it would be fun to incorporate Halloween-themed elements and call it ‘Spooky Sex Week’ this year,” she said.

Social Media Manager Finn Connor, ‘23, believed the theme helped generate excitement for the week’s events.

“Sex Week is all about destigmatizing sexual health and raising awareness about how multifaceted sexual health is; labeling Sex Week as ‘Spooky’ adds a layer of irony, because the role of Sex Week is to make the topics we discuss less intimidating or ‘spooky’,” Connor said.

The Halloween theme was incorporated in several ways; Sex Trivia Night prizes included Halloween-themed prizes, candy, and Halloween-themed condoms and stickers were given out throughout the week.

The events kicked off Sunday, Oct. 25 with the premiere of the “Intimate Vio-lence” documentary and Project Horizon fundraiser at Hull’s Drive-in.

On Tuesday, over 150 students attended virtual sex trivia night to win prize baskets with sex toys, beginner bondage kits and devil costumes.

On Wednesday, keynote speaker Schuyler Bailar joined a Q&A about his experience as the first transgender NCAA D1 athlete.

Connor was excited to hear from Bailar and moderate the Q&A.

“[Schuyler Bailar] competed for four years on the Harvard Men’s Swim Team and graduated in 2019. He has been an inspiration to me for many years, as I am a trans man and former swimmer who considered competing at the collegiate level,” Connor said.

“As a trans person, it is incredibly im-pactful to have a trans man speak to my university community about trans issues, as this raises awareness about my own experiences.”

Connor said others got to ask Bailar questions and connect with him on a personal level.

“My key takeaway is that trans individuals are so much more than their trans identities,” he said, “Trans people are athletes and actors and students, and they have so many traits and accomplishments beyond their gender identities. It is important to humanize the trans community and to see trans people as multifaceted individuals.”

On Thursday, Lucie Fielding, a resident in counseling, hosted the “BDSM-inar” sex education workshop.

“I think it’s important to normalize talking about how to safely enact fantasies in the bedroom. After all, SHAG is about promoting a healthy sexual culture, and we want to make sure that people are having fun, but also staying safe,” Dickinson said.

The week wrapped up with a panel on gender identity, sexual orientation and sexuality.

Mickie Brown, ‘21 compiled the annual accompanying SHAG-a-zine featuring erotic art and poetry submissions. This year the magazine is online due to COVID-19 concerns.

“A few of the benefits of moving the zine online are reduced paper usage, additional creative freedom in the medium we can present it on, and the ability to have a website where people can find anything and everything SHAG related,” Brown said.

It’s available on SHAG’s new website (wlushag.com) and students can follow the SHAG instagram @shag.wlu for information on future events.