Friends of sex-positive journalism everywhere hailed the launch of the first ever Sex-Positive Journalism Awards last fall. Now, as the March 23rd deadline for entries approaches, the Sexies board would like to remind all you wonderful sex-positive readers and writers that we can’t do it alone.

The awards need to raise another $5,000 to cover their budget and properly award the winners, and we need more entries from mainstream sources (www.sexies.org/submit.php: It’s free to submit entries, and readers can submit as well as writers).

''The entries, the encouragement, and the enthusiasm we’ve received tells me that the time was ripe for this award,'' says co-founder journalist Miriam Axel-Lute. ''But the fact that sex-positive journalism is so rare means we need the help of all of you readers out there to help us turn up those gems of good, objective, sex-positive reporting--especially in mainstream sources--and then to help us be able to afford to get the word out about them.''

The Sexies were launched by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, the Center for Sex and Culture, Babeland, and Miriam Axel-Lute to promote fair, accurate, and non-sensationalized coverage of sexual topics. The awards are currently accepting entries that meet both high journalistic standards and the Sexies awards criteria (www.sexies.org/criteria.html).

Here are 10 ways to support sex-positive journalism and the Sexies:

1. Give money! The Sexies are a labor of love. But love doesn't pay the bills. If you can give $100, $50, or $25, it will help us promote the awards, cover our expenses, and honor our winners properly. Donate at www.sexies.org/support.html.

2. Become a corporate sponsor of the Sexies—or connect us with your favorite sex-friendly business that might want to become one. E-mail info@sexies.org for more information.

3. Submit entries. Yes, readers as well as writers can submit to the Sexies. Articles have to have been published in 2007 and meet high journalistic standards as well as our sex-positive criteria. Full guidelines, criteria, and a submission form are on our website: www.sexies.org. We especially need submissions—even ones that were merely sex-neutral when everyone else was sex- negative—from mainstream daily newspapers!

4. Mention the Sexies as a resource in a letter to the editor, especially our sex-positive journalism criteria (www.sexies.org/criteria.html) and resources for journalists (www.sexies.org/resources.html). If you've always been meaning to write in to your local paper about their sex-related coverage, good or bad, now's a great time to do it! (and while you’re at it, write a thank you letter to your favorite sex-pos writer—they’re a lonely bunch!)

5. Ask your favorite sex-positive publications, and your favorite mainstream ones as well, to cover the Sexies. We think we're pretty unusual and would make a good story!

6. Tell everyone you know. Blog about the awards, bring us up at opportune (or inopportune) times with family and friends and your local newspaper editor…

7. Make us popular. Join our LiveJournal community (sexposjawards), friend us on Myspace (www.myspace.com/sexposjournalism), post our site on Del.icio.us, Digg us.

8. Sign up for our announcement list. If you don't do LiveJournal or Myspace, sign up for our update mailing list, sexies_update@yahoogroups.com, to stay up to speed.

9. Link to us. Even if you don't want to make a big fanfare, a link helps us in search-engine rankings.

10. Donate airline or Amtrak miles to get our winners to an awards ceremony, or to be raffled off for fundraising. You must have enough to redeem for a whole ticket. E-mail info@sexies.org if you've got a chunk to offer.

And whatever else you do, read skeptically, support sex-positive writers wherever they write, and stick up for your right to a sex-positive world!

xoxo
The Sexies Board

Support sex-positive journalism! www.sexies.org/support.html