By Willa Umansky PZ ’27

On Sunday, February 25, Pitzer held its third annual Sex Trivia competition in the Gold Student Center Multipurpose Room. The trivia night — sponsored by Pitzer’s ResLife and Title IX offices — was advertised as a sex-positive event inclusive to the college’s queer community.  The event captured the interest of students, engrossing late teens and early twenty-somethings in the world of information about safe sex. 

The event consisted of three rounds of the trivia game Kahoot, broken up by mini games with volunteer audience members. The first Kahoot game featured a general set of sex education trivia questions alongside questions about resources for sexual assault support including Pitzer’s Title IX office and available birth control options. It was then followed by a mini game where people raced to rip a condom.

The second Kahoot was centered around queer sexual health with questions such as “Is ‘scissoring’ a real thing?” and “What are poppers?” This was followed by a mini game where students attempted to put a condom on a soda can the fastest.

The final Kahoot, which my team actually won (quick flex), was another set of general questions such as “What is the most common cause of penis rupture” or “What is the maximum time that sperm can survive inside the uterus?”.

Statistics that outline the fact that young adults (15-24) account for more than half of all reported cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea underscore the organizers’ goals in developing events like Sex Trivia intended to truly engage students and increase awareness around sexual safety.

Emmy Knapp PZ ’26 helped organize the event through their work as Pitzer’s DHSM & Title IX Student Liaison. Knapp emphasized the importance of talking about sex and sexual health as a community, encouraging students to build a relationship with the Title IX office.

“But really, what are people excited about?” Knapp said. “The prizes and the ability to come together and talk about this thing, which we all talk about in our own separate friend groups. But understanding that as a community and as a whole, we are also having this conversation and changing relationship with the Title IX office, and that really that relationship is good. It’s there. There are students you can talk to. There are administrators that you can talk to. And that, for me, coming from meeting the Title line liaison, is what I see is one of the most important aspects of an event like sex trivia, which certainly isn’t limited to a Kahoot and a table full of sex toys. We can continue conversations.”

The event was hosted by Atherton Hall Resident Assistant, Sahar Dabirian PZ ’24. Dabirian discussed her interest in the event and what inspired her to host.

“I am a public health major and my thesis is actually on sexual health,” Dabirian said. “So I really like being able to share what I’ve learned through my education with the [Pitzer] community because ultimately what I want to do is work with communities.”

Dabirian described how she wanted to hold a ResLife event that excited and engaged residents.

“To encourage sex positivity, get the information out there and also have an event that our residents want to come to because we’re giving out sex toys, I think sometimes you have to be a bit outlandish to engage your community.”

Trivia participant, Ezra Levinson PZ ’27, detailed the benefits of this accessible and engaging sex education.

“Because of the way that sex education works in middle and high schools, people associate awkwardness and taboo with the concept of sex,” said Levinson. “Specifically with the idea of sex education … I think that this is a demonstration that it doesn’t have to be that way. And I think that’s really cool.”

Levinson also discussed the trivia’s inclusion of specifically queer sex education.

“I know that one of the biggest problems with sex education in general is that it’s not queer, inclusive, and it just really fails to represent groups that are often at higher risk of things like STIs, relationship abuse, [and] sexual abuse. I think that’s another reason that spaces like this are really created by that community.”

Dabirian also highlighted these gaps in queer sex education, explaining why she emphasized it when crafting the questions for the event.

“I think that queer people should be represented in conversations about sex and sexuality, especially in conversations about healthy relationships, STIs, and stuff like that.”

Levinson stressed the importance of engaging in events like this.

“We’re not going to be in college forever,”  Levinson said. “Which I think is [the] reason that makes me want to do stuff like this because I’m not going to have the chance to forever, and that just makes this that much more important because everyone who was there … make better, healthier and more fun choices.”