Last spring, Washington became the first American city to organize a campaign to distribute free female condoms in areas of the city where HIV/AIDS infection rates were highest. The good news: the public-private D.C. Female Condom Project campaign — given the catchphrase “DC’s Doin’ It!” — has been fairly successful so far. According to statistics released earlier this week, 25,000 D.C. residents were made aware of the female condom during the program’s first year. That figure includes 13,000 men who were made aware of the contraception’s existence — a rather impressive showing, considering that the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration had assumed that zero fellas would take an interest in the contraception.
“Community education partners learned that men were a key audience for the female condom,” read a statement released earlier this week by a public relations firm representing the campaign. Guys were apparently drawn to the fact that female condoms allow for more “raw, unrestricted sex.” In addition, educators were told to “emphasize pleasure, not just protection, when promoting the female condom” to men. Gee, who’d have ever thought that dudes would be into that kind of stuff?
The campaign, which was recently refunded with another $335,000 in grant money from the MAC AIDS Fund, handed out 179,000 female condoms and educated 5,600 D.C. residents on how to use them during its first year.
