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Group to raise safe sex awareness

Safe sex is taking center stage on campus as National Condom Week events are set to prepare students for Valentine’s Day romance.

Sex Out Loud, a student organization devoted to improving sexual health awareness through education, is hosting a series of events to celebrate the weeklong event running from Feb. 14-21. The theme of this year’s celebration: is “Put this on when you get off.”

Paula Tran, Sex Out Loud events coordinator, said the national event is designed to help people engage in healthier relationships.

“We’re trying to compete with the media image of a hypersexual culture,” Tran said. “We’re making people aware of the things they can do to avoid unhealthy relationships.”

Thursday night, starting at 10 p.m., Sex Out Loud will partner with Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, to conduct a “Condom Crawl.” The groups will travel from bar to bar spreading their message of safe and consensual sex.

PAVE chair Tiffany Trzebiatowski said the group will be handing out condoms with messages like “Asking is the first thing you do with your mouth,” and will also be handing out informational cards and grab bags filled with a condom, a sucker and a bottle-opener key chain. 

Trzebiatowski said it is very important to promote consensual sex in Madison’s drinking culture, because “alcohol does impair your ability to give consent.”

Sex Out Loud will be hosting a number of other events for the week. There will be a birth control forum Wednesday in the Memorial Union at 8 p.m. The forum will include a discussion of birth control methods and a question-and-answer session. 

Thursday will feature a Pleasure/Relationship Program at 8 p.m. According to Tran, Sex Out Loud’s Pleasure Program is very popular on campus. She added it emphasizes the importance of knowing what your body wants and needs, and also knowing your boundaries.

Friday and Saturday, the group will be hosting the Vagina Monologues at the Barrymore Theatre at 8 p.m. 

Sex Out Loud is currently holding a “Sexual Health Theme Contest.” Students can submit their theme ideas for April’s Sexual Health Week. The grand prize is a Eurail Global pass and second place receives a $100 certificate to Underground Textbook Exchange.

However, Sex Out Loud is not the only group gearing up for the year’s most romantic day, however. Calzone restaurant Lovshack, 555 on  State Street., is offering the “Get Laid Special” for the entire month.

Customers who purchase two calzones get to choose between a free rose or a free a free condom.

According to UW freshman Kendra Haight, who works at Lovshack, the deal has been very popular since its inception.  

“Females have tended to pick the rose more than the men,” Haight said. “If you want to get laid,  the rose is the better way to go, but if you already know you’re going to get laid, you should get the condom.”