The founder of The School of Sexuality Project is bringing body literacy, wearable art, drag and community healing into a Long Beach church for one unapologetic night.
Imagine walking into a packed church and finding drag performers commanding the room, poets speaking openly about identity, and models walking a runway in elaborate pieces of wearable vulva art.
This is not a traditional Sunday service. It is The Vulva Gala.
On August 15, The School of Sexuality Project will transform the First Congregational Church of Long Beach into a community festival centered on healing, education, body liberation and joy. The all-ages event will feature live music, drag, comedy, poetry, interactive discussions, a queer and BIPOC market, community resources and its signature vulva costume fashion show.
For founder Bridgett Khoury, the event is not about using anatomy for shock value. It is about creating the kind of honest, inclusive and approachable education she did not have growing up.
Building the Education She Needed
Khoury grew up in Temecula during the 1990s as one of the few children of color in her community. As a Palestinian Chicana, she remembers receiving little meaningful information about her body, sexual health or personal agency.
The message she absorbed was essentially: go to church, avoid sex and do not die.
That absence of education did not protect her. Instead, it left her without the tools she needed to make informed decisions about her own body. After experiencing an STI that caused lasting physical harm, Khoury began recognizing the larger structural barriers that keep people disconnected from accurate information.
Her frustration eventually became fuel.
Khoury founded The School of Sexuality Project to create intersectional learning experiences for young people and adults from different identities, cultures and lived experiences. The organization uses humor, storytelling and hands-on education to challenge stigma and help communities communicate more confidently about their bodies.
The organization’s work particularly centers young people from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and working-class communities, offering interactive curricula, workshops and community events designed to make sexual-wellness education more human.
For Khoury, academic theories are not enough when people continue to experience real-world harm.
“You can’t live in academia and have theories without doing anything tangible,” she told New Hollywood Magazine.
From a Homemade Costume to a Fashion Show
The Vulva Gala began with the same creative spirit that runs throughout the organization.
The School of Sexuality Project regularly uses humor, puppetry, music, art and performance to make conversations about anatomy less intimidating. One of its most recognizable educational tools became a vulva costume handmade by Khoury’s father.
The costume soon appeared in social media videos and became a staple of the organization’s public outreach. Khoury eventually began imagining what could happen if other artists were invited to reinterpret it.
That idea evolved into the gala’s signature fashion show, which features wearable art created by local designers. Each piece uses fashion and storytelling to challenge shame and reconsider what people have been taught about their bodies.
The runway is playful, but its purpose is serious.
By centering one of the body’s most stigmatized parts, the organization opens the door to broader conversations about identity, pleasure, autonomy and shame. The official event program describes the vulva as a starting point rather than the gala’s only subject.
The event also represents an act of resourcefulness. Funding for grassroots sexual-health education can be scarce, particularly when potential supporters are afraid to publicly align themselves with work that has become culturally or politically controversial.
Instead of allowing limited resources to end the conversation, Khoury and her team turned creativity into a method of survival.
Reclaiming a Church Through Community
Holding The Vulva Gala inside the First Congregational Church of Long Beach is intentional, but the festival itself is not a religious event.
Khoury understands that religious institutions have sometimes influenced how people understand sexuality, gender and the body. For some, those experiences have included silence, fear or shame.
Rather than avoiding that history, she wants to address it directly.
The church provides an opportunity to examine how institutions have shaped people’s relationships with their bodies while creating space for a different experience—one rooted in reflection, healing and community care.
Khoury sees the location as part of a new chapter, where a space associated with restriction for some attendees can instead hold art, education, laughter and open conversation.
“Living in joy is resistance,” she said.
The gala’s dress code carries that same spirit. This year’s theme, “Holy Glam: Camp Goes to Church,” encourages attendees to arrive in their Sunday best with an extra dose of theatricality, from dramatic hats to altar-worthy fashion.
Why Body Literacy Remains Political
Khoury believes the continued discomfort surrounding words like “vulva” is not accidental.
She sees bodily shame as a tool that can be used to keep people from understanding their rights, establishing boundaries or speaking up when something happens to them. That harm disproportionately affects women, queer communities and people of color.
When people do not know the correct language for their anatomy, it can become harder to communicate with medical professionals, recognize inappropriate behavior, discuss consent or advocate for themselves.
Fear and political polarization, Khoury argues, widen that gap.
The School of Sexuality Project responds by giving people information they can use. The goal is not to tell anyone how to live. It is to make sure they have enough knowledge to make decisions for themselves.
Creating Safe Pockets for Every Generation
Although The Vulva Gala explores complex subjects, it is designed as an all-ages event.
Khoury is aware that children, teenagers, parents and older adults may arrive with different levels of knowledge and comfort. Instead of approaching every attendee in the same way, the organizers are creating what she describes as “safe pockets” for age-appropriate learning.
The event will include designated rooms and facilitated discussions where participants can explore certain subjects more deeply. Families will also have access to activities for younger guests and support for answering questions in age-appropriate ways.
The approach is deliberate.
“We’re doing it on purpose, with purpose,” Khoury said.
She does not want attendees to tiptoe around the subject. She wants them to have thoughtful conversations, laugh together and learn through the discomfort.
The venue will also include ramps, elevators and access for people using mobility aids. Multilingual elements, masks and hand sanitizer will be available as part of the organization’s effort to make the festival accessible to more members of the community.
The Work Beyond the Gala
The School of Sexuality Project’s mission extends beyond one night.
The organization offers K-12 sexual-health education designed around the specific needs of participating school communities. It also presents anatomy-building workshops that use hands-on art activities to teach people about their bodies.
Khoury hopes the organization can eventually secure long-term funding, expand its educational reach and take its programming nationwide. She also wants to grow The Vulva Gala into a touring event.
That vision comes with challenges. Smaller grassroots organizations are often competing for the same grants as larger, more established institutions with greater staffing and resources.
For Khoury, sustainable support would allow the organization to spend less time fighting to survive and more time serving communities.
Those unable to attend the gala can still support the work by following the organization online, sharing its mission, volunteering, donating and introducing the project to others.
For anyone curious about attending but nervous about what they may encounter, Khoury offers a simple invitation: expect the unexpected.
Expect a night filled with love. Expect community. Expect art, education and a little discomfort. Most importantly, do not allow fear to stop you from living what Khoury calls “the most fabulous life.”
Her final message is even simpler:
“Bodies are not scary.”
The Vulva Gala takes place August 15, 2026, at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach. Tickets are available through The School of Sexuality Project’s official event page.
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