Wanderlust

About the trip

March 16, 2007 at 11:32 pm gvblog 2 comments

I am on my way to San Francisco from the East Coast on a cross country bicycle adventure.
Along the way, I’ll be stopping to meet with and listen to advocates, sexuality educators, and other folks who are working for reproductive autonomy, increased access to health care, and combating negative images of female sexuality.
This tour is supported by Good Vibrations, my favorite local feminist sex store, and sponsored by the Center for Sex and Culture, which provides sex positive sex-education throughout the Bay Area through workshops, events, and classes.
During the ride, I’ll be interviewing people I meet along the way and posting the interviews on this very page. Luckily, you’ve already found me, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything. I’ll be updating as often as I can from the road, but bear with me – there aren’t a lot of wireless networks in Glacier National Park.
This page has information about me and my crew – follow the links below to find out more about who I’m meeting with, why I’m doing this, and what wanderlust means to me.
The people I should meet
Why am I riding my bike across the country?
What is Wanderlust, anyway?

Who’s the crew?

For most of the summer I’ll be riding by myself, but I managed to recruit one other intrepid adventurer – Elizabeth Sy, a close friend and fierce, fabulous woman who has been a co-conspirator in many of my incarnations of joy. She and I co-facilitated a class on Female Sexuality at the Women’s Building in San Francisco and also at UC Berkeley (more on that below) and she is the brains behind Banteay Srai, an empowerment program for young Southeast Asian women who are involved in sex work. As if that weren’t enough, she also founded a socially conscious clothing company with her mother and sister called lush orchid. She’ll be riding with me for two extended segments – so look out for twice the trouble and twice the fun!

Who is Rhonda?

Rhonda is my beloved bicycle, a 2004 Bianchi Volpe. For those of you who want more details, (mainly my bike obsessed uncles, I expect), here they are: Shimano Tiagra components, except for an Ultegra STI shifter on the right because I broke my first shifter. Tiagra is one of the more “affordable” Shimano component sets, but they’ve served me fine so far. I have brand new wheels (thanks Justin!) with Alex touring rims and Tiagra hubs, a Selle Italia Ldy saddle, and fancy red and white striped handlebar tape. I ALSO have a bicycle powered ipod charger (thanks Jake!) and one of those thigamajigs that tells you how far you’ve gone. I have a triple crank in front and a 9 speed cassette, but i have no idea what the gearing ratio is. If you want to come count, let me know!

Who am I?

I am a woman who came of age in the voluptuous embrace of San Francisco, who found her voice and her community in four years of planning protests and actions, of organizing joyful rebellions, of defeating naysayers and fearmongers who try to take our rights away. After five amazing years, I’m leaving this city to explore the beauty of the undiscovered country that lies between my city and my childhood memories of Maine.

Since I graduated from U.C. Berkeley I’ve been working to spread knowledge and information that women can use to make informed choices about what they want to do with their lives and their bodies. From CARAL (the California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, now NARAL Pro-Choice California) to Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, to Law Students for Choice, to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, I’ve been lucky enough to get paid to do what I’m most passionate about. At Planned Parenthood, I worked closely with the fabulous sex educators to develop sex-positivity trainings for new staff, which inspired me to start exploring the integration of sex education and advocacy.

I got my start as a sex educator teaching a class on Female Sexuality at UC Berkeley. The class explores what it means to be a woman in our culture – from body image to masturbation to reproductive options. I don’t know if every person has a political awakening, but FemSex was mine – through the class, I realized that the social and cultural forces that I’d taken for granted were actually just ideas that are perpetuated by the media and the people who believe in them. I had the shocking realization that there was no “normal” way to express sexuality – that whatever I wanted to do was okay, as long as I wasn’t hurting anyone else. If it took me 20 years to realize those things, I wondered how people who didn’t take Femsex felt – did they still carry around terrible feelings of shame and guilt about their bodies and their sexuality?

The Femsex experience inspired me and Elizabeth to teach Femsex at the Women’s Building in San Francisco, which was the first time it was offered off a college campus. There are also Femsex programs at Brown and Harvard Universities, as well as Elizabeth’s program, Banteay Srai.

After 8 years in the Bay Area, I’m headed to New York to enroll in Graduate School in the Fall. Because I have a pathological aversion to free time, I am leaving behind three wonderful organizations that I have had the privilege of being part of. I serve on the Board of ACCESS- Women’s Health Rights Coalition, a grassroots organization dedicated to making choice a reality by providing practical support and information to women seeking reproductive health care. I am also on the Board of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, which is the nation’s oldest LGBT Democratic Club and pretty much the place to go if you want to get anything done in San Francisco politics. I just sit back in awe and register voters. Along with a group of really inspirational women, I recently founded the Good Ol’ Girls Network, a political, professional, and social network for women in Northern California.

When I’m not at meetings, I’m usually riding my bike around town from craft night to potluck, occasionally indulging in some stilt walking street theater. Of course, I owe my undying gratitude to the San Francisco Bike Coalition for making the streets safe to ride down and magically putting in bike lanes EXACTLY where I need them. While I’m gone, I’m leaving San Francisco in my sister Katie’s capable hands, so those of you who live here better not mess anything up while I’m gone.

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