For several years, my family has held a grab bag holiday get-together. People are to bring inexpensive gifts, often intended more for laughs than for use. My extended family includes nieces and nephews ranging in age from 15 to 30, some with children and others who are sexually naïve, even if not virgins. Mine is not a family that discusses sex. My living siblings are reborn Christians, who deem appropriate only discussions of abstinence for those youth not yet married. However, as a nurse, I’ve made it clear that their auntie will not shy away from sexual discussions. I have been known to initiate such conversations with a niece or nephew and even their friends when I have some time with them.

“ONE PREMIUM LUBRICATED Lifestyles® LATEX CONDOM”

So this year, one of my grab bag gifts was condoms. My courage to make this a visible ‘gift’ at the holiday party arose from New York City’s model of making condoms available anywhere and everywhere. The city has rightfully been aggressive in distributing condoms since Thomas Frieden assumed the position of Commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Health and saw that a large proportion of people in the city who are HIV-positive don’t know it and can be spreading it unintentionally by having unprotected sex. In 2007, the city launched a NYC-branded condom and has since given out over 70 million of them for free.

Now, the city has started a Facebook page to promote the use of condoms. Go to NYC Condoms to find places in the city where you can find free condoms. NYC Condom provides data on why condoms are needed and encourages people to send e-condoms, or e-messages, to spread the word instead of the virus, or other sexually transmitted disease, or pregnancy. It’s time that other communities took New York City’s lead and made condoms freely available throughout the community. This is an easy, effective intervention to promoting the public’s health.

My 15-year old niece who started dating her first boyfriend last summer helped me wrap the condoms for the grab bag. She gasped and giggled when she saw them. But then she unintentionally selected that package during the grab bag and blushed when she opened it. If people in the room objected to my gift, no one said so. I think I’ll make it a habit. I have nieces and nephews to love and educate.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 10:06 am and is filed under Choice, Consumer Health Care, Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.