The LGBT Center sponsored Love 'N' Lube, a sexual awareness event featuring an educational table about sexual lubricants, free lubricant sample giveaways and lube wrestling, in Sophia Gordon Hall on Saturday.
Students Christina Thomas, Ryan Rifkin and Kyle Cherry conceived of the event, which beat out a number of other ideas proposed early this fall to receive the LGBT Center's $1,000 sponsorship.
Freshman Kate Salwen was one of the lube wrestlers, and she explained the basics of the athletic attraction. Wrestlers stepped into a slippery kiddy pool, buttressed underneath by a mattress for safety, slathered themselves with lube and wrestled. Each person had a bandana hanging from his or her back, and the object was to pull the other person's bandana out first.
Thomas, a junior, said that the initial goal of the event was to advocate for bringing Logo, a cable network devoted to gay issues, into Tufts' programming plan. This ended up happening before the event, so it became about safe sex education.
Senior Sofia Nelson ran the lube education table with an information board, lube fact sheets and various types of lube that could be tested or tasted with the use of disposable gloves.
Nelson explained that the "main purpose of the event is sex education, particularly having to do with lube."
The table included flavored, water-based and silicone based lubricants. The information handouts gave a general overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The event deliberately did not feature oil-based lubricants because they break down condoms.
Tom Bourdon, the director of the LGBT Center, was available to help the student organizers with the event. He has only been director of the LGBT Center for six weeks, so some of Love 'N' Lube was planned without him.
"I was really excited by the idea, since the intent was to educate on safer sex, which can often be a difficult thing to do. The idea was really catchy and had an edge, while at the same time, wasn't objectifying," Bourdon said.
Awareness about Love 'N' Lube grew through word of mouth, the LGBT community and the Tuftslife.com event listing.
Students attended for various reasons. Freshman Evan West came looking forward to seeing his friend wrestle a former football player.
Freshman Allister Chang said he was disappointed, since he was hoping to lube wrestle, but learned that the wrestling lineup had been determined prior to the event.
Four different pairs of students took part in lube wrestling, and the final round included two Resident Assistants, one of whom was an experienced wrestler.
A separate table had a basket of LGBT pins and a box of mini-samples. Each sample packet included a condom, water-based lube, silicone-based lube and instructions for use.
Condom and lube commercials silently ran on a projector screen on one wall of the Sophia Gordon room, as music played during the wrestling matches. The so-called "fabulous drag extraordinaire" Venus Dimentia MC'ed the event. Between wrestling matches, Dimentia announced facts about lube to the audience.
Thomas noted that she had not expected the lube wrestling to take as long as it did and emphasized the event's overarching goal of sex education. The wrestling aspect was intended to make sexual health fun.
In preparation for the event, the LGBT Center purchased 2,000 small packets and three one-gallon bottles of lube.
Other proposed ideas for the $1,000 sponsorship had included things like a high-heeled drag show, an LGBT cruise and acquiring new sound systems for the LGBT Center.
