2-News 3-News The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News Friday, February 12, 2016 — 3 of eight people are unaware that they are infected, according to the Center for Disease Control. HIV spreads through blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids and breast milk. In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having unprotected sex with someone who is HIV- positive or sharing needles, syringes or other equipment that are used to inject drugs with someone who has HIV, according to the CDC. HIV is a bigger problem in youth — people aged from 13 to 24 — in the United States, with 26 percent of new infections in this age group in 2010. Over half of the people in this age bracket with HIV do not know that they are infected. During his talk, Stephenson pointed out that young people — including college students — might not necessarily have HIV prevention or testing on the top of their priority list since there are other aspects in their lives to keep them busy. Though the University Health Service currently offers free confidential HIV tests for University of Michigan students — the test costs $20 for others — the students may not utilize the resource. “Is (HIV prevention or testing) a priority for young people?” Stephenson asked. “What about other priorities — school, getting good grades and planning what to eat?” Stephenson said addressing some of those other priorities might encourage young people to prioritize HIV prevention or testing, an approach called the “life skills approach.” The approach focuses on developing and honing various practical skills, such as decision-making, problem-solving and critical thinking, in young people to then educate them about issues such as HIV. Stephenson said the approach may help “sort out” other problems the young people have so they can focus on dealing with sexuality issues, such as HIV testing and relationships. “If you sort your life out, you are more likely to get HIV testing,” Stephenson said. Stephenson also discussed iCON, a website for youth in the LGBTQ community to find resources in Southeast Michigan about various issues related to their sexuality, such as HIV prevention and testing, legal counsel and coming out to family and friends. Stephenson is the co-director of the Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities, the organization that developed iCON. iCON is tailored for the user’s unique status on gender, sexual orientation and HIV status. Brentney Wilson, an Eastern Michigan University student who attended the session, said she found iCON “fascinating” and liked how research on other topics that are not immediately related to HIV research were used to address the HIV issue in young people. “How they are using other research to segue into research on HIV — I thought that was clever,” Wilson said. “HIV is a very touchy subject, so it can be very hard to do talk about HIV with people.” Sexpertise Director Laura McAndrew said an open, honest discussion of sexuality is important because sexuality can greatly influence a person’s happiness and wellness as it is not just about sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy. “Sexual health is part of one’s overall health,” McAndrew said. “Sexual health includes having a positive relationship with your sexuality, feeling positive about your sexual orientation and having a pleasurable sexual interaction.” HIV From Page 1 DELANEY RYAN/Daily LSA freshman Peyton Watt plays games and participates in sex positive themed activities in a carnival at the eighth annual Sexpertise at the Michigan League on Thursday. DELANEY RYAN/Daily Law School student Katie Reyzis speaks about sex trafficking from a legal perspective at the eighth annual Sexpertise at the Michigan League on Thursday. and trying to communicate that ‘whatever you want is great for you and I want to help you navigate that sort of thing,’ ” she said. “So, some people might not even be interested in sex and that’s perfectly all right too and so we try to explore all of those different identities.” The games and activities at the carnival were named as puns on terms associated with sex. One such game was “Quickies,” in which participants were asked to sort out myths and facts about sex. The host of the activity, LSA freshman Ciara Hancock, said she was surprised by how little people knew about sex and how difficult it was for participants to separate fact from fiction. “There’s a lot of information out there, but that doesn’t make it good information,” she said. “Some of the littler ones that don’t seem very important and seem kind of common sense, a lot of people are finding (what) they fundamentally thought they knew isn’t true and it’s a big surprise about some things that they just don’t know the basics about.” LSA sophomore Sareena Kamath, who attended the event, said she was impressed by variety of sexual health issues addressed at the carnival. “It addresses a lot of issues in a way that makes you think that you’re not being judged or castigated for something,” Karmath said. “We were just doing this ball toss activity that was about consent, so I think that’s a good way to teach people about consent that’s fun and natural.” LSA freshman Alexandra Chapdelaine said she was excited to find that the event was forthright with its discussion of sexuality. “There’s a lot of things that people don’t talk about because they’re seen as too serious or taboo, but this kind of brings it out in the open and lets everybody celebrate themselves,” she said. Chapdelaine said consent is an important issue on campus that still isn’t properly discussed and she was glad to find that that topic in particular was a critical aspect of the carnival and presented in an engaging way to students. “It doesn’t get talked about enough on college campuses,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of rhetoric about asking for consent, but it’s still awkward for a lot of people. So, I think it’s important to know how to do that.” Kamath echoed Chapdelaine’s comments on consensual sex, adding, “A lot of times you talk about when a non- consensual event happens and the consequences of that, but we don’t talk enough about how to prevent it as much.” CARNIVAL From Page 1 Polyamorous engagements explained at the Leauge By EMILY MIILLERS Daily Staff Reporter About 50 people attended back- to-back interactive lectures on sexual health Wednesday evening as part of the annual Sexpertise conference on sexual health, hosted by the University Health Service. The events, titled “See- ing Other People: Open Relation- ships, Polyamory, and More” and “Kink Outside the Box,” took place in the Michigan League. Public Health graduate stu- dent Tahiya Alam coordinated the Sexpertise conference this year. She heads the Sexpertise committee, which is a part of Sex- perteam, a group that promotes sexual health through various campus events. She said the con- ference is largely based on student recommendations from last year. “We look at what the students are looking for in terms of sexual education and what’s available in terms of resources in our commu- nity,” Alam said. Amy Jacobs, a clinical social worker at the University of Michi- gan Health System, presented “Seeing Other People: Open Rela- tionships, Polyamory and More.” She discussed different types of consensually non-monogamous relationships and discussed her own experiences with open rela- tionships. Jacobs emphasized that con- sensual non-monogamy is not cheating because these relation- ships are based on communica- tion and honesty. “You’re negotiating those kinds of things with your partner to find out what’s important to you,” Jacobs said. “What do you need out of our relationship so that I make sure that I’m respecting that relationship when I’m with other people?” Jacobs provided responses she often got when she told people she was non-monogamous, such as questions about how open rela- tionships work and why she had gotten married. Overall, she said the decision to be non-monoga- mous is dependent on an individ- ual’s definition of a relationship. “What is your definition of a relationship that works? Is it being together for a long time? Or is it being happy?” Jacobs said. “To me that’s not a great mar- riage, just staying together.” Jacobs also said being honest about her relationships is a posi- tive for her daughter, in that she gets to experience alternative family styles and know she has options for future relationships. Public Health graduate student Emma Sell-Goodhand and local sex educator Tori Renaud pre- sented “Kink Outside the Box.” “Kink,” according to present- ers, is defined as non-normative sexual activity, like bondage or role-play. Sell-Goodhand and Renaud incorporated various cell phone polls for the audience with ques- tions about kink, misconceptions concerning kink, different roles and implements in sex play and areas to avoid in a more hands-on style presentation. They cited studies that expressed the physiological and psychological benefits of kink, including having a more open per- spective on sex and other aspects of life. Renaud said she believed communication among partners may lead to benefits from kink. “These activities require a lot of communication,” she said. “A lot of psychological problems stem from suppressing things — whether those be your emotions, your desires. men is whether they think this person who is proposing them is going to be a good lover,” Conley said. “It’s not about whether or not they think they’re going to bond with them, marry them and support them and their children. No. It’s about whether they think the sex is going to be good.” She acknowledged that the logic behind this myth seems intuitive, but oftentimes the truth is shocking to the public. “It doesn’t fit our images of women,” she said. Conley said one of the strong predictors of participation in casual sex for both genders is whether they feel they will be stigmatized. She said women, like men, want respect during sexual encounters. However, as a demographic females are less likely to feel respected and more likely to be stigmatized. “The very men who are especially interested in having casual sex are the ones who are especially likely to engage in slut-shaming and especially endorse the double standard,” Conley said. Conley stressed that these social factors, rather than biological and evolutionary, largely dictate women and men’s motivations to engage in and enjoy casual sex. “When you control for these two factors statistically, the factor associated with stigma and then also the factor associated with how much pleasure people expect to get out of the encounter, generally these gender differences evaporate,” she said. In addition to disproving misconceptions surrounding gender differences, Conley also explored the struggle between monogamous and consensual non-monogamous relationships. She described the perception that “monogamy is best” as a so-called halo effect — society has a tendency to ascribe positive traits toward monogamist relationships and is less likely to do so for “open” relationships. In her research, Conley found that between people who cheat on their partners in a monogamous relationship versus people who are consensually in non- monogamous relationships, the latter group was more likely to promote safe health practices. For example, the consensually non-monogamous participants were more likely to talk about their sexual history with partners and use condoms, and they were less likely to engage in sexual activity while under the influence. She also challenged the notion that those in monogamous relationships have better relationships. A series of graphs presented during her remarks illustrated data showing that there was no difference between the two groups when asked about the level of relationship satisfaction, commitment and passionate love. The last two slides of the series deviated by a small margin, showing that consensual non-monogamous partners shared a higher level of trust while a greater portion of monogamous partners reported a higher level of sexual satisfaction. “If you’re asking me, when I look at these data, if I see evidence that this whole halo effect around monogamy is deserved, I really can’t see it,” Conley said. The last myth Conley aimed to disprove was that sex is immoral and dangerous, and she emphasized that people are often irrational about avoiding sex to avoid STIs. The promoted ideal encourages individuals to not engage in sexual activity at all, she said. In one of her studies, Conley asked participants to rate how many people out of 1,000 can be expected to die from driving from Detroit to Chicago or from having one instance of unprotected sex — participants guessed that people are 17 times more likely to die from unprotected sex. In reality, individuals are 20 times more likely to die from driving from Detroit to Chicago than from having unprotected sex, she said. Engineering sophomore Jacqueline Thomas said she has taken a class on the sociology of sexuality, and was interested in attending the event because of her previous experience with the topic. “I thought it would be really interesting to see how the University promotes events like this,” Thomas said. “I really enjoyed the part about consensual non-monogamy, I really enjoyed how the data showed virtually no differences; it was really nice and informative.” Creating Complex Characters: Dr. Candace Moore, assistant professor in the Department of Screen Arts and Culture and the Women’s Studies Department, began her session with a clip from the Netflix TV show “Sense8.” Her lecture examined LGBTQ sexuality in media with a heavy focus on scenes from the 1970s. Moore began by pointing to film and television from the ’90s, noting the few episodes on shows such as ‘Roseanne’ and “L.A. Law” that portrayed gay and lesbian characters to increase ratings. However, she said during that time most of what audiences saw were a few episodes where there would be non-sexualized same-sex characters or a couple of lesbian kisses. “I want to question this idea that gay sexuality was expressed in any kind of out way or potentially queer way,” Moore said. RESEARCH From Page 1 Read more at MichiganDaily.com Read more at MichiganDaily.com Sexpertise events examine non-normative relationships