Free sex advice at Bendigo Pride

SEXOLOGIST Dr Linda Kirkman will be offering free relationship and sex advice at Bendigo Pride’s Pride in the Park event.

Dr Kirkman, who identifies as queer, has been doing such counselling for more than 30 years, and said the opportunity is modelled on similar work done by New Yorker Franscisco Ramirez.

“The idea is that people have questions and often they don’t know how to ask their questions,” she said.

“It’s an opportunity for some really brief and tailored education.

“It’s not therapy and it’s not confidential because it’s not in a secluded place.”

Part of what Dr Kirkman hopes to do is open up what people see as sex.

“So much of how sex between people is portrayed is very much the heteronormative model and it’s all about penetration and genitals, which is great if that’s your thing, cool, no shade,”

she said.

“However, for a lot of people that might not be their thing, or their bits don’t work for whatever reason, or perhaps they’re asexual; but they can still have intimacy and pleasure and touch and connection.”

The way Dr Kirkman said she would like to define sex is “a pleasurable encounter that has consensual erotic overtones”.

“And what erotic overtones means will be as different as humans are.

“Come and ask a question and find out something that you’ve often wondered and never known how to ask or how to look up.”

Dr Kirkman said another sexologist who speaks Mandarin, Maxi Cie, will also be there.

Dr Kirkman was the first woman in Australia to be an IVF surrogate in 1988, and carried her sister’s daughter, Alice Clarke; now an award-winning tech journalist.

You will be able to find Dr Kirkman at Pride in the Park at Rosalind Park on Saturday, March 16.