December 22, 2008

Rise in HIV/AIDS Cases May End Texas County’s Condom Ban

A condom distribution ban in Dallas County is still intact despite the steady increase of residents living with HIV/AIDS over the past five years, reports The Dallas Morning News.

This county had the highest HIV rate in Texas in both 2007 and 2006, which is why two court members are looking to reverse a Commissioners Court policy that was passed in 1995. The policy deems the distribution of condoms as encouraging illegal and immoral behavior and requires health programs to emphasize abstinence instead of comprehensive sex education.  

Though free condoms are available at all county health departments in Texas, AIDS awareness experts say that not all who are at risk will come to the county health department and ask for them.  

“Any barrier to receiving condoms needs to be eliminated,” said Raeline Nobles, executive director of AIDS Arms, a Dallas nonprofit. “It’s better to go in the communities that are high risk because they may not come to you.”

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Previous Comments:

Mario, West Palm Beach, FL, 2009-01-11 08:59:00
Here in town, when you go to a drugstore to buy condoms and lubricating agents, you find them behind locked showcases. For the descrete buyer this is an outrageous impediment! Plus, have you checked out their prices? Equally outrageous!

Sean, Newalla, 2008-12-26 12:25:27
All I want to say, is there are a lot of people who are living on a low income, and can't afford to go and buy them. And I think that any county or state that puts a ban on them,is really ignorant.

Glen Sutton, Atlanta, 2008-12-23 13:15:06
As an HIV+ gay man that considers himself a Christian, I find it abhorrent that people will use their supposed belief in God to support and encourage hatred and ignorance. Let me ask this, If I buy a gun to protect myself, couldn't that too be seen as encouraging illegal and immoral behavior? Aren't guns used quite frequently in the commission of illegal and immoral acts every day? And doesn't the use of alcohol frequently lead to immoral and illegal behavior? Yet both are still available.

Michael, , 2008-12-23 09:56:11
I use to live in Dallas County, and I had no problem with this policy. I feel that anyone who is planning on having sex needs to purchase their own condoms, why should the tax payers have to pay for them or the agencies that are having a hard time making it each year with less and less funding be responsible for buying them for those who are planning on having sex.