(sorry if this is a duplicate for some of you...)

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

For immediate release: June 16, 2008
Contact: Susan Wright, 917-848-6544 or Miriam Axel-Lute, info@...
For more details: www.sexies.org

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."

The 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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Miriam Axel-Lute
Writer & Editor
www.mjoy.org