[media-credit name=’JAKE NAUGHTON/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

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.?

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