Winners of the first Sex-Positive Journalism Awards ("Sexies") Announced!

[Ian David]

For immediate release
Contact: Susan Wright, 917-848-6544 or Miriam Axel-Lute, [email protected]
For more details: www.sexies.org

Winners of the first Sex-Positive Journalism Awards ("Sexies") Announced!

June 16, 2008 - The board and judges of the Sex-Positive Journalism Awards are proud to
announce the winners of the 2008 Sexies. Selected from over 100 entries submitted by
both writers and readers, the winning entries cover subjects from sex in nursing homes,
prostitution, and sex in Iran to Kink.com and panics over Internet sex. The winning
articles were published in a dozen states in all corners of the United States (and one
Canadian province), and represent a range of genres, from news to advice columns.

What they all have in common, however, is that they succeed in embodying the Sexies
criteria for sex-positive journalism (http://www.sexies.org/criteria.html) far better
than the vast majority of their counterparts, helping to improve the quality of
dialogue around sex and create a more well-informed reading public.

"Too many mentions of sex in the media recapitulate our culture's biases about
sexuality and sexual diversity, especially as far as 'controversial' topics are
concerned," says Sexies judge (and writer, Good Vibrations Staff Sexologist, and Center
for Sex & Culture founding director) Carol Queen, Ph.D. "Publications' editors are too
often afraid to let their writers show all sides, and certainly the sex-positive side,
of a story. The Sexies give us a forum to highlight the exceptions, and hopefully shine
a light by which all journalists can see more clearly."

he first-place winners are:
- News or feature (daily newspapers):
"Never Too Old for Sex," by Jill Bauer, Miami Herald

- News story (other general-topic news publications*):
"Hysteria, Exploitation, and Witch Hunting in the Age of Internet Sex,"
by Debbie Nathan, Counterpunch

- Feature (other general-topic news publications*):
"Naughty Nursing Homes," by Daniel Engber, Slate

- News or feature (sex-themed news publications):
"Sex in Iran," by Pari Esfandiari and Richard Buskin, Playboy

- Opinion (all news publications):
"Abstinence 1, S-CHIP 0," by Amanda Robb, New York Times

- Column (all news publications):
Between the Briefs, by Alysha Rooks, Res Gestae, University of Michigan
Law School

A list of all the winners, with links to online versions of their stories where
available, and comments from the judges, can be viewed at
http://www.sexies.org/news/winners08.html. All entries were read by at least two
members of the Sexies judges' panel, including at least one with a journalism
background. Copies of those winning stories not available online can be provided to the
media upon request.

The Sexies board thanks all the writers and readers who sent in entries, and encourages
all of the writers who entered or were nominated to keep up their crucial work.
Submissions for the 2009 Sexies are open and they will be accepted through March 2009
at www.sexies.org/submit.php.

Awards will be presented at a cocktail party open to the public in New York City in
October. Details will be announced shortly. The Sexies are seeking volunteers to help
with the event and donors for a raffle to be held there. Raffle proceeds will help
defray the costs of starting and maintaining the awards, the only journalism awards to
exclusively address sex-positive coverage. For more info, contact us by replying to
this e-mail.

The Sexies are the brainchild of journalist Miriam Axel-Lute, and were brought about in
collaboration with writers, readers, and activists from The Center for Sex & Culture
and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.

The Sexies would also like to thank our corporate sponsors, Babeland (founding
sponsor), Alt Life Films, The Playboy Foundation, and XBIZ, and all of our individual
donors. It's not too late to become part of that sex-positive number:
www.sexies.org/support.html.

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