Why Sex Positivity Matters When Teaching Consent

In this episode, I had the great pleasure of connecting with Melissa Carnagey of Sex Positive Families. Melissa is one of the first educators I found when I started on my own journey of educating my kids on the topics of consent and sexual health. Her comprehensive resources and style of educating (straight forward, shame-free and sex positive) were so refreshing and empowering! So I am thrilled to introduce you to her work if you don’t already know her! In this episode we talked about a number of things including: – Her WHY of becoming a sex educator – How Sex Positive Families came to be and it’s mission – Why sex positive education in the BIPOC community is so important (as well as the representation of POC in the education space) – How sex ed for those with trauma history is so important, particularly when educating our kids about these, sometimes triggering, topics. 

Melissa Carnagey (she/they) is a sexuality educator, licensed social worker, and the founder of Sex Positive Families (SPF). Through SPF, Melissa facilitates workshops, online communities, and develops content that helps families tackle talks about sexual health in shame-free, inclusive, and pleasure-positive ways. Alongside this work, Melissa serves as the Training and Education Coordinator for EngenderHealth, facilitating sex ed classes to middle and high school aged students and delivering capacity building workshops for educators and youth-serving professionals. Melissa lives in Austin with their partner, Ryan, raising three sex positive young people ages 6-20.