As an adjunct of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, the facility is located, appropriately enough, next door to a strip club but this is not a place for cheap thrills. Instead it examines one of the most fundamental of human desires through art, photography, interactive exhibits, video, literature, and historical objects providing insights and context around a topic that is too often dismissed as "dirty."

The entry room is a combination erotic library and gift-shop. No, you can't buy porn here, but they do have reproductions and original artwork and your basic souvenir style tchotkes, albeit with a sexual bent to them. There is also a performance space that doubles as an erotic wedding chapel, complete with Egyptian temple style backdrops and big plush daybeds. Take that Elvis impersonator ceremonies!

The main exhibit hall is accessed through a lobby designed to look like a red light district alley, complete with neon signage and cardboard stand-ups of various stars from the adult entertainment industry.

Once inside the museum, you are confronted with an almost overwhelming series of experiences, from artistic to graphic to humorous. Just inside the front door is a big section of panels from the AIDS quilt, still quietly powerful after all these decades. It's location next to a TV showing unedited gay pornography from the 1970s is shocking at first until you realize the inevitable connection. It's not to say that the liberation of gay sexuality during the the '70s brought about the AIDS crisis in the decade that followed, but it's impossible not to draw a line between the two.

Of course all of that is right next to a giant penis made of more than 100,000 pennies. Serious, shocking, and silly all within ten feet. It's like whiplash.

Oh, and there are whips. A big display devoted to sado-masochism and the elaborate machinery built for such endeavors is disturbing, especially with the female mannequins in various bondage poses. But human sexuality is diverse, to say the least, and consensual acts between adults is what the place is all about, so leave your judgments in the parking lot. You know... the one next to the strip club.

Beyond this are paintings and sculptures; erotic photography; political examinations in the form of a "Wall of Shame" (devoted to those who sought to restrict sexuality in some form or another); a display on sex toys complete with a "Press the Button to see how they work" interactive feature; exhibits on Bettie Page, Tom of Finland, and Larry Flynt; books, magazines, and comics from throughout the decades; mini-theaters and video screens throughout showing documentaries and adult films; an exhibit on peep shows and adult book store arcades (complete with mannequins enjoying the various, ahem, features of such establishments); plaster casts of adult film stars, um, attributes; and even some artifacts such as ancient "deflowering" tools.

It's endlessly fascinating, the full scope of sexual possibility on display in one big room, allowing people to safely explore and perhaps understand that no matter where you fall on the spectrum, you are part of a continuum that if done right is healthy and absolutely human.

Please note that this is a relatively new facility and is still growing and finding its audience and operating model, so the open hours and other details may change. Call ahead before your visit.

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