Professional Conduct Guidelines

AASECT Members are well acquainted with the crucial importance of consent in healthy sexuality. Likewise, we encounter the clinical and interpersonal importance of maintaining good boundaries on a daily basis. It is only good professionalism to assume that, in the public areas of our meeting venues, we are surrounded by a general public who may have less experience with these topics than we do. We invite conference attendees to be thoughtful and respectful about their conversations in public spaces; what may be routine conversation for us as professionals is not likely to be for others.

In addition, we trust you will commit to respecting and maintaining good boundaries with other AASECT members and conference attendees within our conference space. As with any professional space or workplace, we expect that our conference will be a safe environment for learning and networking. Fostering this type of conference experience requires members to not assume that because we are gathered to discuss and learn about sexuality that this automatically means a person is consenting to questions about their personal sexual, intimate experiences/histories or is open to sexual advances. Nor does it mean that a person is welcoming comments about their body and appearance. Our hope is that members will engage with each other in ways that honor each other, respects boundaries, and prioritizes consent.

If you feel unsafe at any time during an AASECT event, dial 55 on the house phone to contact building security or 911 emergency services. If you experience sexual harassment (e.g., unwanted sexual comments or touching) please let AASECT staff know so that we can have an opportunity to educate the member about professional conduct.