A school in New Hampshire will no longer allow Safe-sex kits to be handed out at school. The kits contain flavored lubricant, candy, and condoms. The kits were passed out last month during a special presentation by AIDS Services during World AIDS day. Approximately 70 students took the kits home, making parents of the school extremely upset.

School officials approved the kits but weren’t aware of what it contained. The group has since been banned from the school district.

I can understand why parents may be upset, but at the same time it’s better to be protected than contracting any kind of disease. Let’s not forget that young people are often curious and sometimes pressured into trying things, and sex is not an exception.

According to CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 18,000 people die of AIDS each year in the United States and one in five people living with HIV don’t know they're infected. Honestly, I'd rather give kids color and flavored preservatives, than have them be part of those statistics. Let’s also not forget, that as a group, women account for 27 percent of new HIV infections every year, and 25 percent of those living with HIV.

Washington, DC is the first city to give out free female condoms. It's also the city whose population has the highest HIV rate in the country. A study conducted in 2008 showed that 15,100 adults were infected with HIV in DC.

“The project is funded through a $500,000 grant from the MAC AIDS Fund, a subsidiary of MAC Cosmetics, which contributes to numerous city programs, including two of the city's needle exchange programs. The grant helped the city buy the condoms at wholesale prices from the Female Health Co. and provide them for distribution by social service organizations, including Planned Parenthood, the Community Education Group and the Women's Collective.”

(via Bossip and The Washignton Post)

Female condoms can also be found at beauty salons, convenience stores, and at high schools located in DC areas with high HIV rates. So the next time you buy hair products, don’t forget to grab a free condom on your way out.

Teenagers are not the only ones being targeted. Tweens are also being encouraged to use condoms. A condom manufacturer in Switzerland called Lamprecht AG is creating extra-small condoms for 12 year-old boys. The condoms are called “Hotshot” and the slogan, “it fits when passion hits”—is catchy. Hotshots are smaller in diameter, not in length. The average condom has a diameter of 2 inches, while the Hotshot has 1.7 inches in diameter and 7.4 inches in length. The company decided to create smaller condoms after a study showed that young teens or tweens were regularly engaging in unprotected sex.

To some, condoms made for kids in middle school may appear unseemly, but I think creating something that can reduce the risk of getting HIV is far more important.
 

Ever seen a condom key chain?

Last summer, I went to an overnight program at UC Berkeley for high school seniors from all over the state. We stayed in the dorms and at night we went to each other’s room to talk and hang out. On the last night, eight girls came to my room and noticed my condom key chain.

“Wow, is that a condom?” one girl asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Does your school pass out these things?” another asked.

According to stayteen.org, 3 out of 10 teen girls in the United States become pregnant every year, resulting in 750,000 births for girls between the ages of 13 and 19. But what about those who don’t give birth? Those who choose abortion, rather than facing the challenges of being pregnant, especially as a teen? Childtrendsdatabank.org states that “more than 1/3 of teen pregnancies in America end in abortion.”