Some VL readers may have already figured this out, but I am the same Bianca that hosts the website Latino Sexuality. I am a Sexologist and have been in the field for over a decade providing counseling, training, and curriculum development especially to Latino communities but also to working class and communities of Color (you know the communities often forgotten in general).

My graduate work and curriculum development has focused on how popular culture is an important tool for teaching youth of Color and helping them unlearn and/or be conscious consumers in what they have acquired via media. I’ve created “comprehensive sexuality education” curriculums that not only focus on youth of Color, queer youth, and working class youth, but also uses the media that is targeted towards them and they they interact with in various ways. This was one of the reasons the homegirls at VL thought the film and musica space on VL would be a good fit!

All this to say: I’m going to be the keynote for the  New York State Family Planing Advocates of New York State’s Youth Leadership Conference. Here’s some information about the conference which already has 250 youth attending:

On March 15th, 2010 hundreds of pro-choice teen advocates from across New York State will meet in Albany for Family Planning Advocates of New York State’s Youth Leadership Conference. This event offers high school and college students the opportunity to learn more about the legislative process, reproductive rights issues and how to become a better activist leader. More specifically, these students focus on the need for real sex education and learning how to advocate for access to comprehensive reproductive health information in their schools.

I’m very excited to have been offered this opportunity by the Family Planning Advocates of New York State. Not only did they find me via my Media Justice column, but after reading my column they STILL wanted me to speak to their youth! Let’s be honest, I don’t take the most popular positions in a very bright White field (have you seen who the “experts” are on Oprah, Dr. Oz, and other such shows?) and I’m very vocal about challenging what some of the most well-known Sexologists have said/done/found because they lack an intersectional analysis. I mean seriously, how “comprehensive” can your sexuality education be if you exclude youth of Color or working class youth?

If you work with young people and are in NYS, please consider signing up! There are two sessions of workshops scheduled, my keynote, and an opportunity for youth to “lobby” to their representatives later in the day. It’s an amazing opportunity for youth to hear a radical woman of Color Sexologist affirm their identities, encourage their daily acts of subversion, and mean it! [It's kind of odd to talk about myself in the third person, but I kind of like it.]

I’m also available to do other presentations/workshops and am still offering a FREE training about how to work with LGBTQ youth who are living in out-of-home care (i.e. the child welfare system).