Game show event teaches about sex

Contestants took to the floor at The Friends, Partners, Date Game Show, which took place Thursday night at La Casa Latino Cultural Center.

It was organized by La Casa; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Center; Planned Parenthood and other sponsors as part of Sexploration Week at IU.

“What we decided to do is kind of similar to ‘The Newlywed Game,’ but we’re not necessarily using, of course, newlyweds, or even just people who are in a relationship or dating,” said Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa. “What we have is a variety of people. We have people who are siblings, people who are friends.”

The event brought in four pairs of contestants: a team of best friends, a team of roommates and two teams of sisters. Argenta Peron from Illumenate!, who was introduced as “The People’s Diva,” emceed the event.

Both people from each team were asked beforehand  to predict how their partner would answer certain questions. At the event, the true answers were revealed, and the team with the most correct predictions won.

Questions ranged from “What movie best describes you?” to educational questions that tested contestants’ knowledge of sex, such as:

“What does HIV stand for?”

“What is the difference between being ‘transexual’ and a ‘transvestite’?”

Some teams got the answers right. Others didn’t. But Planned Parenthood intern Jess Ensenberger was surprised with some of the contestants’ answers.

“I was actually really, really surprised that every single one of the contestants thought that saliva transmitted HIV,” she said. “I knew that was a pretty common misconception, but I guess sitting here and listening to them sort of made it more real for me.”

Contestants Juan Cano and his teammate Eric Sierra, both juniors, had been friends for the last eight years, and although they weren’t the official winners at the end of the night, they said they learned a lot.

“I realized stuff that the opposite sex should know,” Caro said.

A few of the questions targeted the effectiveness of birth control, Sierra noted.

“Unless you’re in a relationship, you never really talk about it with the opposite sex,” Sierra said. “I thought it was fun. Even though they talked about awkward stuff, the vibe wasn’t awkward.”