Our Whole Lives Brings Uplifting Inclusive Sex Education to the Gorge
Pictured: Our Whole Lives OWL facilitators Bethel Church Pastor Laura Robinson and Avery Deane Swift. Source.
By Cole Goodwin
Have you ever heard of LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education being taught in church?
Well, now you have!
Bethel Congregational Church in White Salmon will host Our Whole Lives (OWL) sex education courses for youth and adults starting October 20th, 2021. This year's OWL class topics at Bethel Church range from consent and boundaries to sexuality and gender identity, and healthy attitudes about aging. Classes begin October 20th and will be facilitated by Pastor Laura Robinson, and Avery Deane Swift certified OWL facilitator, certified Erotic Blueprint™ coach, and Executive Director of Sex Positive Portland, an organization working to promote healthy sexuality through community and education.
About Our Whole Lives
Our Whole Lives (OWL) is a comprehensive LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education curriculum developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. These interactive in-person workshops and activities center values of personal responsibility, self-worth, social justice, inclusivity, and sex-positivity as it applies to the individual over their entire lifespan. OWL has brought inclusive sex education to grades K-12, young adults, adults, and the elderly to the gorge for over a decade.
“Honest accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions and builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives,” reads the UUA OWL website.
Available Classes
OWL Youth Classes in the Gorge
2021 OWL Flyer
When: December 2021 - May 2022
Where: In-person at Bethel Church (408 E Jewett Blvd, White Salmon, WA 98672)
Bethel Church is currently in the planning phase of their newest OWL cohort for 8th graders and class dates are currently being scheduled. To put your child on the registration list, email Pastor Laura Robinson at pastorlaura@bethelwhitesalmon.org or call the Bethel office at 509-493-1747
OWL Adult Classes in the Gorge
When: All classes will be Wednesday nights, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: In-person at Bethel Church (408 E Jewett Blvd, White Salmon, WA 98672)
“These classes are geared towards adults who want to deepen their understanding of their own sexuality and pleasure and want to integrate that information into their lives,” said Swift.
October 20th: Sexuality & Values & The Sexual Body
This class takes a broader perspective of human sexuality that goes beyond just sexual behavior, learn about arousal and response cycles, how understanding anatomy can help you cultivate more pleasure in your life, define your values and learn how to use your held values in sexual decision making.
October 27th: Consent & Boundaries
This class examines cultural challenges surrounding consent, learn what enthusiastic consent means, how to ask for and give consent and create and maintain boundaries in healthy relationships.
“There are absolutely ways to have conversations about consent and boundaries that are incredibly hot and sexy,” said Swift.
November 3rd: Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity
Learn about the full range of the sexuality and gender spectrum, the difference between the two, the importance of pronouns, and the importance of diversity. “This class is to help people gain a deeper clarity and understanding of themselves and others in their communities,” said Swift.
November 10th: Attitudes About Aging
This class covers topics related to aging and healthy sexuality. Address stereotypes, learn to embrace changing bodies and desires, unpack negative attitudes around aging and discuss ways to stay sexually healthy in an aging body.
November 17th: Sex Play Beyond Basics
Broaden your understanding of pleasure. This is an intellectual exploration of different avenues to sexual pleasure, how to expand your erotic capacity, and more.
REGISTER FOR ADULT CLASSES HERE
Registration Cost: Sliding scale of $25-50 per session. Pay what you're able and please do not let money stop you from attending.* ALL ARE WELCOME.
Checks should be made out to Bethel Congregational Church, and you can either mail them to Bethel Church, PO Box 219, White Salmon 98672 or bring them to the sessions.
*Bethel is supporting this program and will make it available for anyone interested. Paying what you can helps to make more scholarships available in our youth program and ensures that this program will continue in the future. Whatever you are able to offer - below or above $25 is much appreciated.
Please keep in mind: Bethel Church will be following all current Covid-19 guidelines and precautions and capping the class at 20 participants. These widely popular courses fill up fast so make sure to register early!
Meet Bethel’s OWL Facilitators
Pictured: Pastor Laura Robinson
Pastor Laura Robinson
It is unusual to see a church holding LGBTQ inclusive sex education classes. How does promoting sex education fit into Bethel Congregational Church - United Church of Christ's mission?
“The United Church of Christ is an amazing denomination that has long been on the front lines of justice work in this country. And sex education is DEFINITELY justice work. Withholding this information from people furthers cycles of oppression across the board,” said Pastor Laura.
The organizing structure behind the UCC is such that each local congregation governs themselves and can decide what kinds of ministries God is calling them towards. Which is to say - not all UCC churches are the same. But many of them are committed to this work in their communities. Bethel, itself, was the first Opening & Affirming UCC church in the Gorge and has a history of prioritizing human rights and justice in its overall mission. The saints of Bethel were very active justice seekers on a variety of fronts,” said Pastor Laura.
“I believe the Our Whole Lives curriculum is a HUGE aid to our faith journey, individually and collectively, as we walk towards greater love and kinship with all of creation. After all, we profess to follow a God who became human and walked among us in a body, so to imagine that our human bodies are somehow the source of sin and evil feels very counter to our Christian faith to me. Gaining the knowledge, skills, and practices necessary to live full, rich, and compassionate lives in relationship to ourselves and other beings is what life and faith is all about!” said Pastor Laura.
What inspires you about OWL classes and these class experiences?
“These classes and the education available in OWL unpacks SO many damaging messages that we receive from the culture at large. Messages that our parents and caregivers didn't always realize they were passing on. Messages that we received in school or from our peers - as important in what they said as what they didn’t say. Messages that hold up patriarchy and white supremacy by teaching us to distrust and alienate ourselves from our own bodies and the bodies of others if they don't fit some oppressive ideal. And in unpacking those messages, OWL helps grow our capacity for confidence, self-worth, and trust in ourselves. And if those pieces are growing within us, love and compassion aren't far behind! Anything that grows our capacity to love ourselves and others, in the midst of what can feel like a very hard and challenging world, inspires me,” said Pastor Laura.
What is the best thing you've seen come out of one of these class experiences?
“I've watched young people talk about sexuality with their peers in honest, vulnerable, hopeful ways and ask hard uncomfortable questions! I still think that's hard to do as an adult! I've witnessed adults who have gotten more in touch with their bodies step into the world in gentler and more loving ways. I think the most important thing students take away from the OWL curriculum is certainly more knowledge, but more importantly, it's the confidence to ask questions, to know they have a right to this knowledge, and to trust themselves in their boundaries and abilities to communicate. As someone who primarily works with adults, I know how incredibly rare those skills can be and how important they are as we dream of a world free from oppression and full of life,” said Pastor Laura.
Pictured: Avery Deane Swift, OWL facilitator.
Avery Deane Swift
Avery Deane Swift, is a genderqueer certified OWL facilitator and Executive Director of Sex Positive Portland, an organization working to promote healthy sexuality through community and education, and also certified in both the Erotic Blueprint™ and Accelerated Evolution™ coaching frameworks. They work tirelessly to support healing and connectivity efforts throughout the Gorge and Portland region.
How did you become involved in OWL?
“Somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five years ago, there was a need for more facilitators at the OWL program that was being run by Elaine Thompson at Riverside Church. When Elaine reached out to me I was super psyched about the idea. I looked up the curriculum and I really appreciated the values of self-worth, sexual health, responsibility, social justice, and inclusivity that the curriculum was grounded in. I just had this huge YES feeling in my body, it was something I felt like I could really get behind. So I went and got trained on how to be a facilitator,” said Avery Deane Swift.
Avery has been facilitating OWL classes and continuing their training ever since, and is currently certified to facilitate 5 unique sets of OWL curricula.
What inspires you about OWL classes and these class experiences?
“I’m really grateful to be a part of something that gives young people and adults information, knowledge, and resources that can help them make healthy decisions and to build healthy relationships with themselves and others. It’s great to see young people learning to know themselves, and to know themselves as sexual beings, and how to engage in making healthy choices and with themselves and others in that arena. There aren’t a lot of good examples of what healthy relationships and healthy sexuality look like in education and media. A lot of the information about sexuality that is available to youth and to adults is fear-based or porn based and neither one of those gives a full honest picture of what it means to be a sexual being or what it means to experience human sexuality. And when fear-based and porn based information are the only sources of information available, in a culture that uses sex to sell everything, it can result in some pretty mixed up ideas about ourselves and others, and about what sex and sexuality are ‘supposed to be' like. I believe our liberation is tied to our sexual liberation, and I firmly believe orgasm heals. I love helping to create more spaces for people to understand their own sexuality. There’s a look on people’s faces that they get when they learn how it feels to be liberated, to change the way they think, and their perception opens up - I live for those moments,” said Swift.
“I would like to express my gratitude to Elaine Thompson and her decade+ of work with the OWL program. She’s provided so much for the community. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Pastor Laura and Bethel Church for truly embracing the OWL values and supporting the community through this program,” said Swift.
How do OWL classes have a positive impact on communities?
“These workshops help promote personal responsibility, self-worth, social justice, and inclusivity in our communities. They also help people understand their own values. I think understanding one’s values is a big piece of the puzzle. The reason we start the class series talking about personal values is that we each have our own unique values, and even when we do have shared values we might prioritize them differently. And the more someone can understand their own value system and know what’s important to them, the more likely they are to make healthy decisions about their sexual health and relationships, and the effects of that can reverberate through a community in big ways,” said Swift
How do the OWL classes differ from the sex education many may have experienced in public school?
“Most public school sex education is fear-based and focuses on physical health and sexually transmitted infections and diseases. Depending on the school, that education often focuses on contraception or abstinence-only teachings. There’s a lot of focus on what NOT to do but it doesn’t really focus on what positive interactions and healthy relationships look like or what a healthy relationship to your sexuality and gender look like. And that results in a lot of youth and adults getting their information through pornography. And pornography is to real sexual relations as the Indy 500 is to real neighborhood driving. There are some similarities, but if you start bringing your Indy 500 race car driving skills to downtown White Salmon then it’s not going to work out very well. It’s not going to be safe for other people in the area. These classes differ by really empowering people with the information and support they need to make healthy choices for themselves that are aligned with their own values, needs and wants, in an environment that is focused on the beautiful aspects of what it means to be a sexually healthy being- while also discussing and unpacking some of the challenges, stigma, and shame that tend to be connected to this part of ourselves.”
What are the core differences between the youth and adult classes?
“What’s appropriate information to teach an adult is not the same as what is appropriate to teach youth. The curriculum is designed to teach students starting in Kindergarten and then continue through to age 55+. Kindergarteners can learn about bodily autonomy and consent in very basic ways. Such as learning to ask someone if you can hug them, and learning to wait to receive that consent to a hug before running up to someone and hugging them. Then when youth begin going through puberty it becomes appropriate to begin discussing things like bodily changes and go into more in-depth education that is not specific to sexual behavior. The youth OWL curriculum does encourage youth to postpone having sexual intercourse until their brains and bodies are more developed so that they can make healthy decisions that are in line with their values. Then with adults the classes can get more detailed and delve more deeply into sexual topics and begin to discuss more specific sexual behaviors,” said Swift.
