Shedding Shame: Finding Safety for Authentic Sexuality and Gender Identity

Celeste Borealis leads an interactive workshop on sexuality and gender identity at the Austin Public Library Yarborough Branch on Wednesday, August 12, from 6 PM to 8 PM. The session is titled Shedding Shame: Finding Safety for Authentic Sexuality and Gender Identity and is presented by Rainbow Connections ATX, a program of Family Eldercare.

Borealis is a sex educator and experiential intimacy coach who specializes in working with the LGBTQIA+ community. Her background covers a wide range of ground: gender identity, coming out, late-in-life queerness, kink, relationship design, and healing from chronic pain and aging. That breadth informs the workshop, which is framed as an interactive space to look at the societal and generational roots of the shame that holds people back. The goal is to walk away with practical tools for breaking free, loving yourself unconditionally, and embodying full self-expression.

Because it's an interactive session rather than a lecture, you'll be doing more than just listening. The focus is on the roots of that shame—where it comes from and how it sticks—and the concrete ways to work through it. It's designed for anyone who's felt the gap between who they are and how they're showing up in the world, and the tools are meant to be used long after the night is over.

The workshop is open to ages 18 to 110, so it's a multi-generational room. You'll need to register in advance to attend. It runs from 6 PM to 8 PM on Wednesday, August 12, at the Yarborough Branch, 2200 Hancock Dr. in Austin.