With a $500,000 grant from the M.A.C. AIDS fund, Washington health officials decided to flood their region with a less ubiquitous type of condom — the female kind. CNN reported that a “newly released [female condom], called FC2, is cheaper and designed to be more user-friendly, but the female condom is still relatively unknown.” Now available for free at select D.C. salons, college campuses, and community centers, doctors and activists are hoping to see that change.

As we’ve discussed on Zelda Lily before, the HIV infection rate in Washington D.C. is sky-high — and 30% of those infected in the nation’s capitol are women. According to CNN, “HIV is particularly prevalent among African-Americans, and more black women between 25 and 34 will die from HIV/AIDS nationwide than from any other cause.”

Shannon Hader, senior deputy director of the district’s Department of Health, doesn’t think women have an adequate understanding of the menace of HIV infection:

Women haven’t really gotten the message that they’re at risk … So we are very, very concerned with making sure that women in the district realize that HIV, in fact, is a woman’s disease too.

Along with the purchase and distribution of female condoms, the city has also seen that trained outreach workers go out with the prophylactics. One outreach worker, Charlene Cotton, felt compelled to join the cause after she discovered she was HIV-positive:

It will give a woman a choice, freedom to use protection when a man feels as though that he doesn’t have to use a condom … it gives her the opportunity to say, ‘Well you don’t have to use one, so I’ll use one.’

7 Responses to “Half a Million Free Female Condoms Distributed in D.C.”

1. Sydney says:

   March 16, 2010 at 7:12 pm

   Good for them. I hope it helps. Although, after that one gets used up, will they buy more out of their own pockets? only time will tell, I guess.

   Reply
2. Erin says:

   March 16, 2010 at 8:50 pm

   I hope it works, too.

   What I don’t understand is how women aren’t aware that they’re at risk for HIV infection. It’s like campaigns for breast cancer “awareness.” I just wonder how on earth women somehow missed the message that we need to poke our boobies to check for changes and make sure not to have unprotected sex with people we don’t know very well.

   Reply
3. Nat says:

   March 17, 2010 at 6:55 am

   I’m kinda… torn about this. On the one hand, anything that will immediately help women protect themselves is great. On the other hand, on top of birth control and annual vaginal exams and watching our cycles, this puts yet ANOTHER sexual responsibility on women instead of men. If they don’t even have to buy the condom anymore (or get a free one, they’re everywhere), what the fuck DO men have to do exactly, other than stick it in?

   I want these women to be safe, and hey if these female condoms will do it in the short term, good, but in the long term, it’s like those e-mail forwards that tell women how to dress, look, and act to reduce their chances of being stranger-raped – it shouldn’t BE their responsibility alone. TWO people have sex. Or more. Everyone should be sharing the burden of making it safe, and if some whiny little baby complains that the condom makes him feel uncomfortable (because it’s not like we have to feel that condom IN OUR VAGINA), then he shouldn’t be allowed sex by any woman to begin with.

   Sadly, I know, ideals don’t always come through in real life, and people cave in to pressure all the time, so… like I said, torn. On the one hand, this will help those women, which is great. On the other hand, now these lazy, whiny, selfish pansy-men have an excuse to continue their lazy, whiny, selfish pansy behavior, which is bad.

   Reply
   • Sydney says:

     March 17, 2010 at 10:29 am

     Men SHOULD take equal responsibility for birth control, absolutely. But realistically–they often don’t. I think a lot of women feel like, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” when it comes to this issue.

     Luckily, my fiance is good about it. He’s pretty much 100% in charge of birth control since I’m not on any contraceptive medications.

     Reply
   • casey says:

     March 17, 2010 at 10:42 am

     “this puts yet ANOTHER sexual responsibility on women instead of men”

     I get what you’re saying, but no one should ever go into a situation expecting another person to be responsible for their sexual health. While it would be nice if we all had sex partners that cared enough about our well-being to do things like get tested and use condoms, that’s not always the case. I think it’s a great message to send to women – that the man isn’t the only one responsible for carrying around a condom.

     Reply
4. Rumour: Jesse James Cheats on Sandra Bullock | Amy Grindhouse says:

   March 17, 2010 at 4:41 pm

   [...] Half a million free female condoms will be distributed in D.C. [Zelda Lily] [...]

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5. Albert Galjour says:

   July 24, 2010 at 1:33 am

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