Cookies & Consent aims to bring inclusive sex education to UMD

Promotional flyer for Cookies and Consent (Courtesy of Pride Alliance at UMD)

A new event taught LGBTQ+ students about consent and boundaries at Stamp Student Union on October 20. This serves as a pilot event for a potential  series of queer-focused sex education events.

The Pride Alliance and the Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy (MICA) hosted the first ever Cookies & Consent as a part of LGBTQ+ History Month. The event provided students with educational materials and the chance to practice navigating consent. 

Max Tubalov, event organizer for the Pride Alliance and facilitator for TransU, said Cookies & Consent was born out of a need for queer-focused sex education. The majority of sex education resources are based on heterosexual relationships between two cisgender people. This leaves LGBTQ+ students with unanswered questions and no one to turn to.

“I have experience hosting sex ed events in general,” Tubalov said. “So we kind of decided to combine queerness and my expertise and then shove that into the history month.”

Before the main activity, attendees were shown an educational presentation on navigating consent. It included guidelines for establishing consent, communicating with a partner and setting boundaries. The presentation also utilized Planned Parenthood’s FRIES tool, which states consent must be freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific.

Participants were given the chance to follow this model through cookie decorating. Groups were free to decorate the cookies however they wanted, so long as everyone came to an agreement beforehand. 

Everything from the flavor to how many sprinkles they used were up for debate. Since no one could decorate without getting the approval of their whole group, participants had to discuss what they did and didn’t want on the cookie.

This exercise gave students the opportunity to practice facilitating discussions on boundaries and consent. They were able to communicate their wants and needs to a partner in a low-stakes situation and encouraged participants to make compromises that leave both parties satisfied. By practicing consent in everyday situations, students could have an easier time navigating similar conversations in the future.

The Pride Alliance and MICA hope to host similar events in the future. While Cookies & Consent provided important information on consent, it only skimmed the surface of queer sex education. So long as there is a demand for it, these organizations are invested in bringing comprehensive and inclusive sex education to UMD.

“We definitely want to host more events,” Tubalov said. “Especially because this one was kind of introductory, just like an overview of consent. It would be really cool to delve deeper into some more specific topics, and it’d be great to get input from the community about what they want to learn.”