Publications

Researchers have found that negative sexual experiences occur in nightlife settings, and have sought to identify the drivers of these experiences as well as preventive solutions. This body of inquiry overwhelmingly focuses on the experiences and needs of young women who are assumed to be cisgender and heterosexual, and does not consider potentially differing needs of gender and sexuality minorities. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to include gender and sexuality minority voices in this conversation and surface identity-specific experiences, needs, and ideas for how to support sexual safety in nightlife contexts.

Data collection was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 40 gender and sexuality minorities who went out in New York City nightlife an average of at least once per week. Through reflexive thematic analysis, a three-part Continuum of Sexual Safety in Nightlife was developed: (a) as long as bad things don’t happen, (b) consent is mandatory, and (c) I’m being myself and you are too. Ideas for how nightlife operators could alter their establishments to improve feelings of sexual safety for gender and sexuality minority patrons were identified across physical venues, policies, and staff hiring and training. Implications of the findings are discussed. Future studies should extend this preliminary research to better understand the needs and experiences of gender and sexuality minority nightlife patrons and evaluate the economic case for implementing these suggestions in nightlife settings.

Download the full document here: https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/yzsn-ds31

With the virtual OHBM meeting just around the corner, we simply can’t ignore the reason why we’re holding a virtual conference in the first place, along with the shift in productivity, coping adaptations, and mental health states that we have all experienced in recent times. I had the pleasure of sitting down virtually with Emma Kaywin, a conflict mediator and sexual health educator in New York City, who shared her expertise on trauma counseling and its links with the broad spectrum of challenges we have had to face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amplified by recent civil unrest.

Q: I just start having sex a year ago. I really like it — but sex with men is so messy! I’ve been taking a shower immediately after sex and scrubbing my vulva and inside my vagina to get rid of the mess down there, but my friends say I’m a clean freak and I don’t need to do that. Do I need to clean up my vagina after sex, and if so, how?

A talk as part of YES Talks at House of Yes.

No Scrubs:
A Community Discussion on Consent:
DubDay NYC 5/1 at TransPecos
Mediated by Sex and Consent Educator: Emma Kaywin

I’m a sexual person. I’m also a person living with endometriosis, and the confluence of these identities has caused something of a conflict, to put it mildly.

Recently, I was groped on the subway staircase. A man stumbled up to me and put his entire palm on my skirt, right above my pelvic bone. I turned after him and yelled, “Are you f**king kidding me?” (eloquent, I know) and off we both went, me struggling not to pass out from my stress reaction and him, I don’t know, likely not thinking about it ever again.

Q: How can I tell if my boyfriend has HPV? I know that there are different strains of the virus, because my gyno told me that some give you genital warts and other types can give you cancer — this is why I get Pap smears every few years.

Q: I get pretty bad PMS symptoms, and I want to find a way to ease my crankiness, bloating, and cramps but I don’t like taking lots of pills. Are there certain foods that can help with PMS symptoms? Sometimes I’ve found that a glass of red wine helps, but maybe that’s just placebo, and an ex said he read something about dark chocolate helping and used to bring me bars of chocolate when I wasn’t feeling great — but that could have just been a cute thing he did, I never saw the research.