Al Vernacchio

Al Vernacchio (born ) He attended St. Joseph's Preparatory School, graduating in 1982. At an early age, Vernacchio knew he was gay. When he was 19 years old, he came out to his parents, who asked him to speak with a priest. Vernacchio cites his parents' unwillingness to talk about sexuality as part of his motivation for openly discussing the subject.

Career While earning his master's degree, Vernacchio taught English and religious studies (including sex education) at St. Joseph's Preparatory School. After working at ActionAIDS, he remained a volunteer there and for AIDS Fund, including raising awareness at Friends' Central School and bringing students to volunteer. In 2014, Vernacchio was honored with the Founders' Award by the Philadelphia organization AIDS Fund. Vernacchio is also the faculty advisor for the gay–straight alliance at Friends' Central. In 2014, Vernacchio released his book For Goodness Sex: Changing the Way We Talk to Teens About Sexuality, Values, and Health, published by Harper Wave. The book was received positively by reviewers. It was republished in 2023 by Harper Paperbacks with the subtitle A Sex-Positive Guide to Raising Healthy, Empowered Teens.

In 2021, Friends' Central received a $250,000 grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation for a program titled "Healthy Relationships and Consent Education", led by Vernacchio.

Pizza metaphor Vernacchio is known for proposing "eating pizza" as an alternative to the traditional baseball metaphor for sex. Writing about the pizza metaphor, he states:

Additionally, Vernacchio states that the pizza metaphor reframes sexual encounters to focus on mutual satisfaction, rather than a competition with winners and losers. He also uses the metaphor to discuss negotiation in sexual encounters: "when you talk about sharing a pizza, you talk about desires and choices. You talk about the things that you both want, and you work together to make the best decision for both parties." Before settling on the pizza metaphor, he considered an ice cream sundae upon the suggestion of a high school student.

Personal life Around 2013, Vernacchio converted from Catholicism to Quakerism. He lives in Germantown, Philadelphia, with his husband.