Photos by Sommer Mathis

In a city where the HIV/AIDS infection rate has reached epidemic proportions, is it OK for drug stores to keep their condoms under lock and key, theoretically discouraging skittish shoppers, especially teens, from purchasing them?

That was among the many messages a group of protesters discussed in Dupont Circle this afternoon. About 50 people representing a coalition of organizations and activists that includes the National Organization of Women, the Latino Commission on AIDS, Black Women for Wellness, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project and many others gathered today to announce a nationwide campaign against CVS for the practice of locking up condoms in their stores. The Cure CVS: Unlock the Condoms Initiative is asking CVS to adopt a corporate policy to keep all condoms unlocked at all times.

Not all CVS stores do opt to keep their condoms in locked cabinets — the CVS store in Dupont Circle, directly behind the protest, for example, does not. But a survey conducted by the group of more than 2,200 CVS stores found that CVS locks up condoms in 19 of 21 markets surveyed. More damning, in 13 of those markets, they say CVS has a pattern of locking condoms disproportionately in communities of color.

Have you noticed CVS stores in the D.C. area locking up their condoms? Tell us which ones in the comments.