{"id":630977,"date":"2025-09-10T06:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/?p=630977"},"modified":"2025-09-10T08:59:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:59:04","slug":"burlingtons-first-ever-sex-week-celebrates-inclusivity-in-sex-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2025\/09\/10\/burlingtons-first-ever-sex-week-celebrates-inclusivity-in-sex-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Burlington\u2019s first-ever \u2018sex week\u2019 celebrates inclusivity in sex education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"798\" data-attachment-id=\"630776\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/beth-hankes-1-20250905\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2500,1663\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Glenn Russell&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON Z 6&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Beth Hankes, founder and CEO of Earth and Salt adult store in Burlington on Friday, September 5, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell\\\/VTDigger&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1757102890&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Glenn Russell&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;450&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.004&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;beth-hankes-1 20250905&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"beth-hankes-1 20250905\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Beth Hankes, founder and CEO of Earth and Salt adult store in Burlington on Friday, September 5, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell\/VTDigger&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-300x200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-1200x798.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-1200x798.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stands smiling behind a display of adult products in a store with brick walls, shelves, and large windows in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-630776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-1200x798.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-125x83.jpg 125w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-2000x1330.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-780x519.jpg 780w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-400x266.jpg 400w, https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/beth-hankes-1-20250905-706x470.jpg 706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Beth Hankes, founder and CEO of Earth and Salt adult store in Burlington on Friday, Sept. 5. Photo by Glenn Russell\/VTDigger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Beth Hankes said her sex shop in Burlington was meant to be \u201cthe resource that I hadn\u2019t had.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Struggling with sexual health issues and feeling trapped in the corporate world, she noticed a lack of modern, accessible and \u201cjoyful\u201d stores selling sex products in the area. So in 2021, she opened <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earthandsaltshop.com\/\">Earth + Salt<\/a>, the first women-owned sex shop in Burlington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now a certified sex educator, Hankes runs educational events at the store at least once a month. When Kell Arbor, health and wellness director at the Pride Center, approached the store to ask if they would sponsor Burlington\u2019s first-ever Sex Week, she was so eager that she ended up becoming heavily involved in organizing it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sexweekbtv.com\/\">upcoming Sex Week<\/a>, scheduled from Sept. 14 to 20, features 18 events and runs the gamut from educational panels to art shows and performances to how-to workshops. Earth + Salt plans to host two events, and others will take place at the Spiral House, the Karma Birdhouse, the Pride Center and the Burlington Waterfront Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hankes and Arbor pulled together local sex educators as well as their connections in New York and elsewhere to offer the events, which vary in price from free to roughly $20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arbor said Sex Week was partly meant as a counterbalance to Burlington\u2019s more \u201cfamily-friendly\u201d Pride event, which took place on Sunday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have been hearing from community members that we need more saucy, juicy, sexy things, not just within Pride, but within the community, centering queer and trans folks,\u201d Arbor said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arbor, whose pronouns are fae\/faer, said the events were meant to be LGBTQ+ friendly by nature, but all are welcome. Only two events, mixers for BIPOC Vermonters and bisexual Vermonters, are restricted to people in each of those groups.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s what equity is about, right? Lifting up the perspectives of people most left out, that we might all see new ways forward,\u201d fae said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arbor said that as an HIV-positive Vermonter, fae have encountered ignorance around sexual health, even among health providers. \u201cI\u2019ve seen where the gaps were in my care with doctors saying women don&#8217;t get STIs,\u201d or sexually transmitted infections. \u201cThat&#8217;s very inaccurate. One, I&#8217;m not a woman, and two, women get STIs,\u201d fae said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three events are aimed specifically at health practitioners, including one on sexual health for older adults and one on trans-inclusive practices in health care, according to the event website.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, the organizers hope to draw people into the conversation by centering and celebrating pleasure in its workshops on kink and other sexual practices. \u201cPleasure is more of a sustainable invitation in. That&#8217;s why I like \u2018edu-taining\u2019 models,\u201d Arbor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hankes said the event will feel like a release point for all the pressures and restrictions that have been building up this year regarding sexual health and marginalized communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re still going to be ourselves,\u201d she said. \u201cWe&#8217;re still going to have this point of pleasure, education, community and give ourselves access to that, because obviously the government and the current cultural climate is not going to give us that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arbor said events like these feel even more essential in the current political climate. The Pride Center was hit hard by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcax.com\/2025\/05\/07\/federal-cuts-hit-hiv-prevention-funding-vermont\/\">federal funding cuts to HIV prevention<\/a> earlier this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we&#8217;re being attacked at our identities because of who and how we love, that\u2019s all the more reason to invite people into education about how we might all free ourselves into more pleasure,\u201d Arbor said. \u201cI&#8217;m always like, \u2018if we&#8217;re too busy having orgasms, we can&#8217;t bomb the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Co-hosted by the Pride Center of Vermont, the week features an array of workshops, panels, performances and mixers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1674,"featured_media":630776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-09-10T10:56:05Z","apple_news_api_id":"b73e0803-3143-4248-99b9-26af8106bc22","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-09-10T12:59:03Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Atz4IAzFDQkiZuSavgQa8Ig","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"","everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"","_everlit_metadata_hash":"","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Co-hosted by the Pride Center of Vermont, the week features an array of workshops, panels, performances and mixers.\n","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161364,161362,161363,162357,161361],"tags":[411,25592],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"govpack_profile_tax":[],"coauthors":[162284],"class_list":["post-630977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-burlington","category-champlain-valley","category-chittenden-county","category-life-culture","category-regional","tag-burlington","tag-sex-education","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - 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