Promoting Gay Sex to the General Public?

Last year The Nation’s resident hot head, Dos Un baked the NYC Department of Health and their management of the NYC condom campaign. Now it looks the Department is under fire again, this time by Morality in Media.

This month The Department of Health “unwrapped” a brand new look for the NYC Condom along with a new tag line “Get Some!” To further promote the campaign “street teams” are frivolously handing out free condoms at busy intersections. I’ve also peeped TV, Radio, phone kiosks and subway car ads.

Instead of targeting specific populations, the campaign targets all New Yorkers including those that are religiously opposed to condom use, married couples and not only encourages promiscuity but is also anti-children. “What are the results of this tax dollar supported celebration of condoms?” Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media (MIM) asked. “No one knows since the City apparently does not attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of its free condom efforts.” He goes on to point out that the campaign goes against all decency and implies that condoms protect against all STDs which of course is misleading.

Sounds like a waste of tax dollars to me. It is also quite interesting that while the NYC Department of Health has distributed tens of millions of free condoms in recent years…

• Twice as many syphilis cases were diagnosed in New York City in the first quarter of 2007 as were diagnosed in the first quarter of 2006 (N.Y. Times, 8/12/07);
• Between 2001 and 2006, new diagnoses of H.I.V. infection in New York City rose 34% among Black and Hispanics (N.Y. Times, 1/02/08).

What a Joke! If this burns you up like it does me. Holla at Jeff Escoffier at the Department of Health and tell him how you feel. (212) 788-4975. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.