After the Ford government's sex ed repeal in the summer of 2018, the Guelph Public Library has taken responsibility to teach sexual education into its own hands.
Love Week is happening this week, a series of events aimed at educating adults that wraps up with Sexual Education Day on Saturday,
It all started when librarian Jen Lisso was fuelled by the province’s announcement to revert back to the 1998 curriculum. She thought it was an important time for the library to step up and provide access to the information that students were not getting in schools anymore.
As a direct response, she asked herself "what can library be doing to provide opportunities for people to access information?"
She began preparation for Love Week in September where she coordinated with several community organizations over the course of several months to come together to teach information the library believes is necessary.
"We decided around Valentine's Day to celebrate love at the library and we thought about celebrating it through information because we're a library and we provide equal access to information. That's how we came up with love week," said program supervisor Meg Forestell-Page.
“That's what the library is here for. We’re always filling those gaps. We're always providing information to everybody. It's free for everybody and we're here to help."
Love Week includes a visit from a Stag Shop representative who will speak about using new gadgets and toys to improve sex life for adults, a romance novel rendezvous to discuss romance novels for adults on Feb.13 and a mix and mingle night for adults to meet people in the community on Feb. 14.
Love Week will end with Sexual Education Day Saturday that includes events throughout the day such as storytime for kids with Athena McQueen, a local drag queen, a condom demonstration for teens and adults by Aids Resources Community and Health and a question and answer period.
The different topics will be geared towards different age groups.
A full schedule of the day can be found here.
“We expected to receive some backlash and some outburst in the community about whether or not this is our role to play and in fact, our customers in Guelph have been really supportive,” said Forestell-Page.
“We have actually been asked for special one-offs for the presentations happening on Sexual Education Day. We had some school groups ask if we can present later so they can bring their groups in.”
Reverting back to the 1998 curriculum proved to be a controversial move for the Ford Government as people throughout the province felt strongly about both views.
In the summer of 2018, high school students held a rally downtown Guelph to protest the repeal of the 2015 sex ed curriculum. Similar rallies were held throughout the province. Lisso says she pitched the idea to students in the rally and received positive feedback.
Lisso understands that some people might perceive the Library’s initiative negatively and said that the information the library provides is not meant to be taken in a sexual or sensual manner and nor does the library mean to present it that way.
“Most of the topics over the week and the day are basic sexual education. It's more just about the information about our bodies and the relationship that surround things like sex ed and wellness,” said Lisso.
“The library is a trustable reliable safe space to access information. It's also a place that would not sensor so we would help to connect people to the resources that they need.”
