As pride month kicks off, major corporations throw around rainbows and glitter as a way to celebrate. However fun this may seem, pride month is about more than just changing your brand’s logo. It’s also about educating others on queer history and lifting up people who have been marginalized throughout history, mainly queer people of color. Sadly, many queer-owned businesses do not have the attention they deserve, even during pride month. And it’s typically for racist, homophobic, or transphobic reasons.
To help bring more recognition to queer-owned companies, we have created a list of 100+ LGBTQIA+ owned cannabis companies. While it only highlights a handful of the awesome LGBTQIA+ companies out there, our list includes companies that provide a variety of services, such as retail, delivery and distribution, events, educational opportunities, and more. One of the queer-owned companies on our list is Pleasure Peaks, a business dedicated to educating people about cannabis use, sexual health, and pleasure.
What is Pleasure Peaks?
Pleasure Peaks is an international cannabis brand made up of Pleasure Peaks in the United States and Peak Pharm Labs in Canada. We spoke with CEO and founder of Pleasure Peaks, Antuanette Gomez, to discuss how her journey with cannabis and sexual health inspired her to create a company focused on these topics. It started when she got into alternative medicine, also called “natural forms of healing,” and became interested in cannabis use.
The Foundations of Pleasure Peaks
Gomez became a holistic nutritionist and began working at a chronic pain clinic where she saw how many people used cannabis to help them with different ailments such as endometriosis and dyspareunia. “And that’s where I really learned that cannabis is an actual medicine,” she says. In keeping with her passion for natural alternatives, Gomez wanted to create a pharmacy that genuinely understood cannabidiol properties and their potential for healing.
The medicinal market for cannabis is vast, but Gomez felt that sexual health and education was the right avenue to take for her business. Pleasure Peaks started as a women’s sexual health platform in 2016. Last November, Pleasure Peaks stepped up their game even more, teaming up with Hybrid Pharm in Canada to start Peak Pharm Labs. This partnership allowed the company to work closely with experienced partners in CBD wellness.
Sharing What We Can Learn
In discussing her own experiences with sexual health education, Gomez says that the Pleasure Peaks community is very focused on creating a safe and educational environment so that others can apply what they learn to their own health and pleasure. As a tantric sex coach- a philosophy that focuses on spirituality and sexual energy- Gomez feels like she’s had “an abundance of love” for everyone in her life. And she wants to instill that abundance of love in others. That’s why another important goal of Pleasure Peaks is to help people explore their own sexuality and connections to sex. “We do have the ‘How to have great sex’ [conversation],” she says, “but how do you…really delve into your sexuality and empower yourself sexually?”
Blogs and the Community
Pleasure Peaks’s blog offers a lot of information regarding their community. It also shows how dedicated their team is to educating and creating safe spaces for anyone and everyone. Their content is perfect for people interested in learning more and those who have had their own positive experiences with cannabis and their health and sexuality.Within their community, Pleasure Peaks also has a “Clubhouse,” a place where people can partake in an educational, sex-positive conversation. The company’s Facebook also provides a “judgment free space to connect and support [their] pleasure lover community” where members are able to “share experiences, tips, and pleasure journeys.”
Events
Pleasure Peaks hosts several events. A recent one called “Cannabis & Sexual Health” created a safe space for conversations with experts in healthcare to examine sexual healing. Another conversation, titled “Race, Kink, & Cannabis,” discussed “race, sex, and the intersectionality of the BLM movement”.
Pleasure Peaks even provides a retreat, which they describe as “an immersive experience to delve into…sacred sexuality”. The retreat is open to couples and singles, allowing participants “to practice tantric group experiences.” The goals is for people to leave with a new sense of “feeling loved, connected, and, most importantly, free to live [their] sexual lifestyle on [their] own terms”.
Sex and Cannabis Podcast
In addition to their supportive community, Pleasure Peaks also has a podcast and a YouTube channel where they share even more information.
Their podcast, titled “She Cums First,” is available on Spotify and Ancho.FM. It talks about women’s sexual health conditions and ailments. Topics include “endometriosis, rape survivors, PCOCs, infertility, and menstrual pain”. The podcast is a platform for women to share their experiences with cannabis and sexual health for other women to learn from and connect with.
Prodcuts
Pleasure Peaks also offers an array of products meant to maximize sexual health and pleasure. They include a section on every product description called “Why CBD & Sex” where they explain the role of cannabis in sex. They write that “CBD promotes increased blood flow…helps relax muscles & ease tension, supporting comfort” and helps to manage pain in a gentle and natural way.
So, Gomez combined her knowledge of cannabis and altruistic, natural remedies to create products that balance the two. Cannabis products are extremely beneficial to many areas of mental and physical help, but sexual security involves both. These items can give you the full experience of pleasure.
Some of their top products include their “lovers suppositories” and “love drops”. The suppositories are meant to “enhance pleasure and reduce discomfort” so that people can explore sex more comfortably and increase intimacy with their partners. The drops are capsules that can help survivors of assault and sexual trauma by supporting them through any struggles they may have around sex. This sort of product is extremely important in helping survivors of abuse and sexual trauma heal and feel more comfortable during sex.
Everyone Deserves Pleasure
Pleasure Peaks is an extremely immersive and dedicated business. They offer a wide range of events and products to meet the needs of everyone who wishes to learn more about the effects of cannabis on sexual health and pleasure. With such strong taboos surrounding both cannabis and sex, it can be hard to find accurate and safe information. Thankfully, Pleasure Peaks provides a safe and authoritative voice when it comes to cannabis and sex, especially for women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ folks. Gomez explains it best, saying that Pleasure Peaks wants to emphasize that “all races and all genders deserve pleasure.”
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