Condoms, when used correctly, help prevent unplanned pregnancies, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Condoms can be an important part of practicing safer sex, and here at Sex, Etc. we encourage you to make condoms fun. Sex, Etc. is not the only place promoting condom use; in fact, a whole city is promoting it! New York City’s Health Department gives away more than 40 million free condoms a year. Those free condoms have a package specifically designed for New York City, a black wrapper based on the city’s subway motif.

World AIDS Day is held once a year, every year, on December 1. While HIV/AIDS is a daily reality that needs to be discussed and addressed, this is one particular day when people take extra time to get educated, get tested and remember the over 33 million people worldwide, living with HIV/AIDS.

AIDS-related deaths have been decreasing over the past couple of decades for two very good reasons: knowledge and treatment. Yet, HIV/AIDS still has no cure.

This World AIDS Day, we encourage you to remember that there’s a long way to go in developing a cure for HIV and overcoming the social stigma faced by those living with HIV/AIDS all over the world. And while you’re remembering, you can actually do something by participating in a World AIDS Day event near you. And there are two other things you can do, not just today, but any day:

1) Educate yourself about HIV/AIDS and
2) Get tested.

-Anita Modi, 17, Contributor

Did you know that one out of five people with HIV in the U.S. does not even know they are infected? If you think, “Oh, it could never happen to me,” ask yourself, “How can I be sure?”

Think about it! Anyone—young or old, male or female, black or white, gay or straight—can get HIV. So how can you really be sure whether or not you have HIV? There’s only one way to know for certain—get tested.

No matter how safe you think you are are when having sex, get tested.
No matter how much you trust your partner to be STD and HIV-free, get tested.
No matter how scared you are of getting tested, get tested.

Saturday, June 27th is National HIV Testing Day. Grab the widget below and spread the word about getting tested on MySpace or your personal Web site or blog. Check out Blog.AIDS.gov for real stories and videos. And, most importantly, get yourself tested!

To find easy, confidential testing sites in your area, you can simply text your ZIP code to “KNOWIT” (566948), or visit HIVTest.org.

This week MTV premiered Pedro, a film about the life of AIDS activist Pedro Zamora. He was the first openly gay, HIV-positive person on TV. Pedro’s story is just as relevant today as it was in 1994, when he grabbed the nation’s attention on The Real World: San Francisco.

Pedro was diagnosed as HIV positive when he was 17 years old. While MTV’s cameras were rolling, Pedro used the spotlight to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and openly talked about how he got HIV through unprotected sex. Although he died when he was only 22 years old, his story lives on as a reminder for young people to take control of their sex lives and to speak openly and honestly about safer sex and getting tested.

MTV’s Get Yourself Tested (GYT) is a new campaign, aiming to remove the taboos surrounding STD testing. One in two young people will get a sexually transmitted disease (STD) by age 25-and most won’t know it! So before foreplay, GYT!

Barack Obama said a few times during his campaign that we need to “put the video games away.” But what if playing a video game could actually improve education and prevent the spread of AIDS?

There’s a new multi-player PC game being launched in Kenya called Pamoja Mtaani, which means “together in the hood” in Swahili. Players follow the stories of five main characters. And through puzzles, missions and mini-games, they learn about behaviors that reduce the risk of getting HIV, like proper condom use and getting tested. The game creators even included local hip-hop music, celebrities and fashion to make the experience feel authentic to Kenyan teens. Click the image below to check out video trailers that introduce the game’s characters.

The idea of playing a video game to learn about HIV/AIDS sounds pretty cool. Do you think your sex ed classes would be more fun if you could learn about topics like pregnancy and STDs by playing video games?