H*yas for Choice (HFC) launched a new sexual joy committee for Georgetown University students to learn more about sex and sexual empowerment, which held its first meeting Feb. 2.

The sexual joy committee’s first meeting introduced interested participants to the committee’s goals for the semester ahead, which include expanding knowledge about sexual experiences and generating more awareness around safe sex practices. HFC, an abortion-rights student group, hopes the committee will draw interest from a broad range of Georgetown students.

The committee houses three subdivisions — sexual empowerment, sex education and queer sex — that mirror the overarching targets of the new initiative. Committee members plan to host informational seminars and lead interactive workshops throughout the semester to create a more positive sexual environment for the Georgetown community.

Serena Barish (CAS ’25), HFC co-director of advocacy and organizing, steered the formation of the new sexual joy committee. Barish said that advancing reproductive justice requires creating safe spaces for conversations about sex, especially at religious institutions.

“We feel like information is really important, and especially surrounding sex, it’s not something that people generally have the easiest access to, especially people who have gone through kind of like the Catholic school pipeline up to Georgetown,” Barish told The Hoya.

Sophie Burk (SOH ’25) and Brigid O’Connor (CAS ’26) co-lead the sex education subcommittee, which focuses on building better foundational understandings of topics like birth control, closing the orgasm gap between men and women and destigmatizing sexual experiences for those with medical conditions. 

Burk said the sexual joy committee is an extension of HFC, though the committee places a greater emphasis on sharing information about the sexual experience itself.

“We’re here trying to create a space that focuses on how to create positive sexual experiences,” Burk told The Hoya. “It’s more about the pleasure aspect, the joy aspects of mindsets.”

Sydney Abele (CAS ’25), a co-leader of the queer sex subcommittee, said committee leadership prioritizes engaging participants from diverse backgrounds.

“With me being a representative from GUPride, as well, I think that it’s really important to have not only gender and sexual minorities be represented,” Abele told The Hoya. “It’s also really important to have people of color represented and people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. So that’s definitely something that we’re really cognizant of, and working towards actively.” 

For their first campus-wide event, the sexual joy committee invited students to participate in a discussion about hookup culture. 

O’Connor said events like this are critical to the overall mission of the committee but also to attract potential new participants.

“We’re still very much in our kind of incubating phase where we’re still collecting applicants, and trying to build the committee up a bit more,” O’Connor told The Hoya. “As more people kind of gauge interest, and as we start having this type of event, and increase our presence on campus, we already have an influx of interest from more people.”

Marieteresa Porcher Allen (MSB ’24), an attendee at the hookup culture event, said the meeting was very informative.

“I learned a lot. I feel like I knew some stuff already, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot, like half of the population has herpes, that was kind of crazy,” Allen told The Hoya. “I’m looking forward to more events like this.”

Allen said she appreciated how attendees actively contributed new perspectives to the conversations at the event.

“I thought it was really good. I learned a lot from the open discussion, especially from the guys that were here making good comments, which was interesting and made me happy,” Allen said.

Burk said those who have engaged with the sexual joy committee so far have displayed large amounts of enthusiasm for the committee and its purpose.

“It’s kind of a self-selecting group who comes, but honestly, the thing that surprised me the most was just how the people who came or have been coming to what we’ve been doing have actually been very eager to participate and have their voice heard,” Burk said.

“The three goals that I would use are probably education, empowerment and destigmatization,” Abele said. “Those are three really big goals that sum up what we’re trying to do here.”