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 With our president busy spouting biblical references and invoking the name of God like some half-assed tent show revivalist/carnival barker, it's hard to feel good about the state of sexual awareness in this country. Bush's administration has been ramming its buffoonish abstinence agenda down the country's throat like some grim and foul tonic, busily hacking up national health websites to confuse the public about the safety of condoms to further some nightmarishly puritanical ideal. What sucks worst about this is the common knowledge that ol' G.W. was a coke-sniffing, booze-swilling tail-chaser in his "better" days. But now that he's found the Lord (funny how the bearded messiah has a tendency to lurk in rehab clinics and prisons), the fun's over, for everybody, apparently.  Every week I see crazy tales from all over this great land, of states and municipalities still gripped in the dark ages, where everything from homosexuality to sex toys are either implicitly or explicitly forbidden.That's why I live in San Francisco, where we can afford to chuckle at such ridiculous rural rubric with a justifiable air of cultural elitism. Sure, to you and me being weird/ slutty/ sexually liberated is an unconscious way of life, but to places in this country that are less liberal, we are providing examples of how to exist by our own unique (if existent) moral code without setting flame to the fabric of society. Or something like that. So what better community in which to start an institute dedicated to the dissemination of information and ideas about human sexuality?  Gilbert Herdt, Ph.D., internationally renowned expert and researcher on the subject of sex, understands this, and that's why he chose San Francisco as home to the newly inaugurated National Sexuality Resource Center, which he co-founded.Launched to provide the latest accurate information on sexuality for the public, researchers, and advocates, this first-of-its-kind resource in the United States also launched a new website as the first step in its mission to replace myths and misinformation about sexuality with evidence-based research on sexual health, education and rights. "We want to make America safe for sexuality," said Herdt, who is also director of NSRC, at the opening ceremony for its new offices in the heart of the city's Mission District. "Our country's long history of fear, shame and silence surrounding sexuality damages the physical and mental health of Americans at all ages. We face rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases, half of all pregnancies remain unintended, and sexual abuse and coercion continue without adequate resources to address critical gaps in national policy."  Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, a keynote speaker at the opening, seemed to counter the current political climate in his statements."Comprehensive sex education is critical to good physical, mental and sexual health and should be promoted, first in the home, then in the schools and also in the churches," Satcher said. "Wherever and whenever tried, comprehensive sex education has been shown to be effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases and reducing unintended pregnancies and sexual violence." According to Satcher, the center is desperately needed in this country, which is eclipsed in the area of education in comparison to nations like France, Germany and the Netherlands. Major funding for NSRC is provided by The Ford Foundation as part of its Global Initiative on Sexual Health and Well Being, which connects organizations in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and South America who are dedicated to creating resources in support of academics and advocates working on sexuality. NSRC states its intent is to address sexuality issues that many people have never thought about before, including challenging questions raised by aging baby boomers who will remain sexually active longer than any generation in history, the sexual rights of people living with disabilities, and immigrant populations unfamiliar with the sexual "rules of the game" in American society.  The institute will use trained sex educators and interns to provide information and give classes on a variety of sex-related subjects. San Francisco State University's Human Sexuality Studies Program, of which the institute is an extension and Herdt its director, even offers a Master's program in sex.San Francisco already boasts an authorative center for the subject of sexuality, San Francisco Sex Information, and with sex educators Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence's plan to open the Center for Sex and Culture in the near future, the City will clearly be at the vanguard of sexual academia. "The Center for Sex and Culture will provide another leg for this triangle," Lawrence said of his institution's relationship with the other two repositories. "There will be lots of available research, but it's all didactic and scientific. The Center will provide more community access and community space for sexually oriented organizations." Lawrence said in his estimation, "The NSRC is the classroom, and the Center for Sex and Culture is the laboratory." Nevertheless, Lawrence's center is set to do some instruction of its own, with a curriculum that's sure to raise a few eyebrows, even in this libertine town. "The Center will actually be teaching classes in sexual skills in real time, hoping to help couples and the local community with real people," he said. "And we're working with the queer community and providing space for the organization to rent for events." For more information on the National Sexuality Resource Center, visit: nsrc.sfsu.edu. For more information on the Center for Sex and Culture visit: www.CenterforSexandCulture.com.
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