Where Sex Education Lacks in Appalachian Schools, This Kentucky Program Is Attempting to Fill In"Tanya Turner, creator of Sexy Sex Ed, is from Appalachia— specifically from Bell County, Kentucky,— and she said it was finding out about the need for sex ed in the region that moved her to begin work around reproductive justice in 2012.
Tanya Turner leads a workshop held by Sexy Sex Ed, her Appalachian nonprofit.
Sexy Sex Ed started as a skillshare of the STAY Project, and in 2012, Turner facilitated the first official workshop in East Tennessee at the Highlander Research and Education Center
Since 2012, Turner has worked with Appalshop, the Kentucky Health Justice Network, a nonprofit organization that provides direct support, education and outreach to Kentuckians seeking reproductive justice, and with All Access EKY.
Turner announced in July of this year a new partnership with the KHJN and funding from the Appalachian Community Fund that will allow her to expand the program beyond what her own pockets can provide. She’s planning a training for this fall to teach community members how to facilitate sex ed workshops and has hopes to continue increasing the cities with a Sexy Sex Ed presence.
Marcie Crim is the executive director of the KHJN, and she said it’s the people she met growing up in small-town Kentucky that inform her work.
In July of this year, Helayne and Turner co-facilitated a workshop at the STAY Project Summer Institute in Virginia, and in early August the pair facilitated a workshop for Girls Rock Whitesburg in Kentucky.
Helayne said she sees her work with Sexy Sex Ed as just the beginning.
“I grew up resenting this place and being from here, but I realized that so many of us hate it because we’re blind...” Helayane said. "
“.... that moved her to begin work around reproductive justice in 2012.”
What in the sam hell is reproductive justice?