"Let's Talk About Sex" was the inaugural conference for SisterSong, a reproductive justice organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. Emi Koyama was invited to speak on a panel, "Controlling Communities through Controlling Bodies," which would precede the plenary keynote by Joycelyn Elders. 

Joycelyn Elders was appointed Surgeon General by the Clinton administration but was dismissed when she mentioned masturbation as a form of safe sex. A pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. Elders condoned early interventions on intersex children. In her book, Joycelyn Elders M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America, she wrote:

Determining a person's sex doesn't feel the same as making decisions about high blood pressure or back surgery... We didn't involve parents in the decision making, though we talked to them at length after we had determined what was most feasible to do...It's very upsetting to parents when their children's genitals are abnormal. So when you talk to them, they are really listening. More than anything they want clarity for themselves and normal, happy lives for their children" (pp. 153-154)

While speaking on the panel, Emi criticized Dr. Elders's position on the care of intersex children while Elders sat in the audience. As a result of Emi's activism, Dr. Elders would later issue a statement along with two other surgeon generals, David Satcher and Richard Carmona, urging clinicians to move away from early medical interventions, offer psychosocial support for families and affected individuals, and create pathways of consent for children to make decisions about their own bodies.