SF State's National Sexuality Resource Center honored the President of the Planned Parenthood Foundation on Oct. 22 at the Champions of Sexual Literacy 2009, held at the Four Seasons Hotel downtown.

The fourth annual event awarded Cecile Richards with a proclamation from the California Senate signed by Sen. Mark Leno as well as a Certificate of Honor signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom for her work towards policy and better access to quality information about sexuality and sexual issues. The NSRC also received a certificate from Newsom.

The event highlighted ongoing work by advocates, particularly Planned Parenthood, to broaden sexual literacy.

"It's hard to describe what being sexually literate means. It goes beyond the basics of sex education and includes pleasure and desire and is more positive than negative," said 35-year-old Jennifer Rehor.

This year the event attracted over 100 students from SF State's Department of Sexuality Studies and spectators to celebrate Richards. Other speakers included Dr. Pepper Schwartz, who has recently been named the AARP "Love and Relationships Guru" and Dr. Gilbert Herdt, the Executive Director of the NCS.

Rehor, a graduate student in the sexuality studies department, spent ten years working in advertising before coming to SF State. Realizing she wasn't satisfied, she had decided to reevaluate her life when she noticed what she called the "lack of sexual education" available to youth.

This lack of sexual education is focused on the quality of education in high schools across the country, many of which formerly benefited due to money from the Bush administration set aside for abstinence-only programs. These programs have widely been refuted as ineffective, including in a study released by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in July 2009.

In her speech, Richards applauded President Barack Obama's decision not to continue funding abstinence-only sex education and pointed out the importance of young people's involvement in debates on sexual literacy.

"Even for an old crusty member of congress, it's hard to turn down a young teenager from their district trying to talk to them about sex education," said Richards. Her goal is to get 1,000 teenagers lobbying congress this year for more comprehensive sex education.

The NSRC is an organization researching sexuality and gender, creating and distributing materials encouraging people to get involved with issues of sexual freedom.

They work with two other organizations -- the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality and the Department of Sexuality Studies -- to create the National Centers on Sexuality, which aims to advance teaching, researching and advocacy in sexuality studies and well-being. All three are based at SF State.

"The NSRC stresses sexual literacy and sexual health holistically, with positive aspects put into sex education," said Richard Garcia, 24, a graduate student in the department of sexuality studies. Garcia was noted during the speeches for winning a scholarships of more than $2,000.

According to Garcia, a member of the NSRC, the event was important not only for honoring Richards, but for the funding that it can generate for the Center through ticket sales and donation cards.

"Sexuality is the most important thing and being able to control it is part of being a person," said Jenna Wieden, a 23-year-old graduate student in sexuality studies.

While introducing Richards as the keynote speaker Dr. Sarah Costa, a member of the NCS board, praised Richards for her work towards reproductive freedom.

"Cecile Richards is paving the way for a sexual education for real needs and has helped create a national movement to protect women's reproductive rights," Costa said.

Richards took over as president of Planned Parenthood and their advocacy arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in 2007. Since then she has advocated for two reforms regarding sexual issues. The first occurred earlier this year, when the FDA approved over-the-counter emergency contraception for people under 18. The second is a continual push towards a more comprehensive, medically accurate form of sex education for young people.

The Champions of Sexual Literacy event has honored 14 others in the past, including Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Sen. Leno and B.D. Wong, better known as Dr. George Huang on "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."