The 9th annual Sexual Intelligence Awards® honor individuals and organizations who challenge the sexual fear, unrealistic expectations, and government hypocrisy that undermine love, sex, and relationships--and political freedom--today.
Previous winners include Bill Taverner, Sex Educator; Catholics for a Free Choice; Candye Kane, Red Hot Musician; and Robert McGinley, Non-monogamy activist. This year's winners are:
Vermont Law School (www.VermontLaw.edu)
Vermont Law School is one of only two U.S. law schools that bar military recruiters from campus. Their reason: the discriminatory nature of our government's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prevents openly gay Americans from serving in the military.
The school's ban on military recruiters disqualifies them from certain federal funding--so VLS is really putting their money where their mouth is. They are showing their students that the practice of law requires just laws--and that just laws often require social action.
Doug Kirby, Sexual Behavior Research Scientist
Dr. Doug Kirby is internationally known for his work in the field of adolescent sexuality. His most important publication is the widely acclaimed Emerging Answers 2007. Sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, it is the essential scientific report documenting the failure of abstinence-only school programs to reduce pregnancy and STDs.
In this and others reports, Doug has generated the most comprehensive picture ever of factors associated with adolescent sexual behavior, contraceptive use, pregnancy, and STDs. He also continues to identify the common characteristics of effective sexuality education and HIV education programs throughout the world. He has addressed the governments of countries including Nigeria, Ecuador, Kenya, Uganda, and England's House of Commons.
Reliable Consultants
Douglas Richards and his company Reliable Consultants (owners of 4 stores selling sex toys) had the courage to file suit against the State of Texas, challenging their Sexual Device Ban.
And they won, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sustained their challenge, taking the opportunity to say that the goal of "protecting children" couldn't possibly be served by the Texas law. Even more eloquently, the court said the Texas law is "about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the State is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification for the statute."
We also applaud Reliable's attorneys, Jennifer Kinsley and Lou Sirkin of Cincinnati, who generously and intelligently pour their hearts into every First Amendment and free expression case they handle, as well as philanthropist Phil Harvey, who joined the Reliable case as a co-defendant.
National Center for Reason & Justice (NCRJ.org)
Far too many innocent Americans have been unjustly imprisoned, accused of sex crimes against children and teens. Most have been convicted because of bizarre (and often prompted) "eyewitness" testimony, coerced confessions, vindictive perjury, or the court's acceptance of junk science.
All these accused have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and to receive fair trials. But social hysteria and media frenzy often make this impossible. Ironically, most innocent people accused of childhood sexual exploitation can't be helped by DNA technology--because no actual crimes were committed.
NCRJ sponsors many of the wrongfully convicted, marshalling legal, financial, and other support on their behalf. NCRJ also fights to bring the profound injustices of our judicial system to public attention. Most people don't know, for example, that in many states, an innocent person imprisoned for child molestation who refuses to "confess" is considered "unsuccessfully" treated and can't be released, regardless of his/her prison behavior.
NCRJ's Board includes award-winning journalists Debbie Nathan and Judith Levine. Its advisors include psychologists Carol Tavris, Leonore Tiefer, and Elizabeth Loftus, winner of our first Sexual Intelligence Award back in 2000.
Go to their site (www.ncrj.org), read a few shocking stories of how profoundly our justice system can betray perfectly nice people--just like you and me--and send them a tax-deductible donation, grateful that you haven't needed NCRJ for yourself or a loved one.
