I’m writing this in light of an event that will soon take place at the University of Illinois called “Sex Out Loud.” This event, being presented under the guise of being “informative,” is an “out loud” celebration of our shame; and I am not talking about sex as our shame, but I am talking about those things that society has brought to identify with sex and that now pollute American ideology.

Events such as Sex Out Loud stand to exploit sex as being a tool for our pleasure and as a short-lived substitute for happiness in our times of stress or depression. It teaches nothing of value and gives no deeper understanding of the meaning behind sex or reasons why or why not to have sex. This event and ones like it are a celebration of nothing more than perversion.

Wait another decade; perhaps it will be “Out Loud” enough to have child porn among their selection of pornography, or bestiality toys among their selection of dildos and butt beads, or maybe live prostitutes waiting in booths (“try before you buy”). This protest is not coming from someone who doesn’t know what it’s like. I’ve wasted myself sexually, and there is value in choosing to move on from that waste. You will not see me attending this event, but you may see me holding an event of my own, celebrating the meaning of sex and the values of waiting.

I would like to encourage you to celebrate with me simply by not attending “Sex Out Loud” if you can do nothing else. Now to all those who would call me “repressed,” let me correct you; I am reserved, for the one person that deserves the most intimate form of love: my future spouse.

Christopher Michael Palasz

senior in LAS