'Sex week' at University of Tennessee loses funding after Republican protest

A "sex week" at the University of Tennessee, aimed at promoting sexual health and awareness, has had its funding slashed after Republican lawmakers launched a campaign against the event.

The event, featuring HIV testing and sexual education classes, was scheduled to take place on the university's campus from 7 April. Almost $18,000 of its funding was to come from the University of Tennessee, but $11,145 was withdrawn on Wednesday, after a campaign launched by a Republican state senator, Stacey Campfield.

Campfield said he had become aware of the event after reading an article on a rightwing website which drew attention to some of the week's racier sessions, including a "golden condom scavenger hunt" and a seminar on oral sex entitled "How many licks does it take?"

However, Campfield's campaign appears to have inspired something of a backlash. The co-chair of the event told the Guardian there had been "a sudden increase in donations" from private citizens since Campfield and others took umbrage.

Jacob Clark, 21, said there had been "more than a bit of a spike" in contributions through the event's website. "We always had small donations, little ones coming in every now and then," he said. "But we haven't had big ones until now. And the volume of them coming in has increased dramatically."
The controversy appears to have started after TownHall.com posted an article noting that a "lesbian bondage expert" would be among the speakers at sex week and said that events titles include "Getting laid" and "Sex positivity; queer as a verb". This prompted Campfield and others to pressure the University of Tennessee to remove funding. He wrote on his blog: "Perversity is not diversity just because it's at the university."

A Tennessee state representative, Susan Lynn, was also opposed to the event. "This is truly an offense to the people of Tennessee," she reportedly said on the House floor. "I am offended for the people of my district at the University of Tennessee having sex week."

On Wednesday the university said in a statement that "the campus will not be using state tax or tuition dollars to fund sex week". But Clark insisted that sex week would go ahead, and said organisers were not planning to cancel any scheduled sessions. He said some of the more luridly titled events which had appeared to upset local politicians were never going to take place and had come from an earlier draft schedule.

"A lot of the offence that has been taken has been unfounded," Clark said. "We've said it again and again, we're trying to put on a programme for everyone, so we're always going to have something that somebody else doesn't agree with or necessarily like, but we're also always open to including programming that you do like."