“Sex across cultures” - a study circle in English for RFSU members
Earlier this week, RFSU had its very first members meeting in English. It was the newly started RFSU Malmö Integration Group that organized the first part of its study circle "Sex across cultures".
The first meeting was held online and attracted participants from several different local branches of RFSU. They originally came from Portugal, Poland, Italy, Belgium, the UK and Sweden. They shared experiences around their own sexuality education in school, how they talked about sex while growing up and with friends, and how this differs from their experiences in Sweden today. There was lots of laughter and plenty of funny stories, but also a great understanding of the different challenges they experienced.
Lukasz Grosz is one of the RFSU Malmö members behind the idea of the Integration group.
How did it all start?
– In December 2020 I participated in my first Medlemskväll. It was an online meeting, where we were chatting about different ideas. Because my level of Swedish was not the best, the meeting was held in English. The idea came up to create something addressed to non-Swedish speakers. After the meeting Eva Kinali and I started to develop the idea and on 28th of February 2021 we had a first official meeting with the RFSU Malmö board and RFSU Malmö Integration Group was created.
What do you hope to achieve?
– There are two main ideas behind the Malmö integration group. We want to address our activities to migrants in Sweden and try to help people who can’t speak Swedish to access different services and information. There are already a lot of educational materials in different languages made by RFSU and we want to promote it! On the other hand, we just wanted more activities in English. That’s why we started the study circle called Sex across cultures, where we discuss in English different topics related to sexuality, body rights and sex education.
How was the first study circle meeting?
– It was very good! We are so happy that people not involved in the Malmö Integration Group also joined. We had planned the meeting to take place at RFSU Malmö’s venue, but because of the pandemic situation, the event took place online, which also has some pros (for example people from Stockholm could join).
How will the study circle continue now?
– Our idea from the beginning was to make physical events, because we thought that it would create a more conversation-friendly environment. But I think we got used to online meetings in the pandemic and the online meeting worked very well. Sex across cultures will meet on the first Monday of every month, but we have not decided if it will be always digital. We need to check all the options and needs before making a final decision. We might meet every other month online or have some hybrid meetings. We will decide soon!
Can other RFSU members still join?
– Yes! The next meeting will be on March 7. You will find more information soon in our facebookgroup. Please join us!
Does the Malmö integration group have any other activities planned?
– Some of us will join the Sextanten-weekend in Jönköping in April. We will probably host a discussion circle about one of the goals in Sextanten in English then.
Text: Ulrika Hammar