Pleasure is Absolutely Political! by Zoe Ligon

It feels as though each morning we wake up to more painful news — all reminders that our system is not simply breaking, it was always broken to begin with. In light of the murders of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, promoting and posting in the usual fashion as a business is inappropriate and unethical.

Instead, we are highlighting organizations that are doing racial justice work. This is also Pride month, and we can only celebrate it today because of a riot led by Black activists like Marsha P. Johnson. Sex education itself wouldn’t exist without the work of the Black community!

In these times, it can be difficult to know how to best leverage our voices to enact social change. While sharing information and resources is important, white people cannot simply stop there. White supremacy is designed to be invisible to white people. Grappling with and uncovering white privilege is an uncomfortable and often alienating process, but it is necessary in order to dismantle it. If we benefit from white privilege, then we must do the inner work of recognizing how we are complicit in a larger system that benefits whiteness.

Pleasure is absolutely political — if bodily autonomy and safety from police violence are limited to certain people, then none of us are truly free or sexually liberated. We must make a commitment to continuously uplift and center Black, indigenous and people of color in the sexual wellness space and beyond.