Logan said that she hopes to show the students that it's possible to live out the Theology of the Body and be fulfilled in a meaningful way, as opposed to the "lie that you can do whatever you want, or that you don't really have any meaning, or that Catholicism is just a set of rules to enslave us."
The concept of "Sex Week" was first introduced at Yale University in the early 2000s. Attendance at the Sex Week events at UTK has ranged from 1,650 participants to more than 3,500, according to Inside HigherEd.
Sex Week at UTK has been controversial ever since its inception in 2013, when it was revealed that student fees were going to fund controversial activities, including a condom scavenger hunt.
Sex Week is not unique to UTK's campus- other public and private institutions across the country hold similar events- but Tennessee legislators have called the week a "national embarrassment" and have moved to exclude the event from using public funding. University administrators have said that they have done as much as they can to tone down the event without violating the group's First Amendment rights.
The Tennessee state comptroller released a 269-page report in February about the use of public funds for Sex Week, which detailed the fact that university departments and programs originally committed over $11,000 in funds for Sex Week.
The university chancellor ultimately withdrew the public funds before the 2013 event, and the organizers of UTK's Sex Week have had to use other funding sources, such as online crowdsource funding, for subsequent years' events.
Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, as a producer for public radio, and as a videographer. He is based in St. Louis.