Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Getting your boo flowers, chocolate and a card might be nice. But why not try something unique? Have a conversation about safer sex!

Having convos about condoms and STD testing on V-Day might sound like the ultimate mood killer. But safer sex and romance go hand in hand! It’s fear of STDs and pregnancy that can get in the way of enjoying the time you spend with your partner, not condoms. Show your partner that you really care about him or her: Talk about getting tested and using condoms or other latex barriers before things get hot and heavy.

Can you imagine getting an STD for Valentine’s Day? That’s no way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Check out this great video from Trojan’s Evolve campaign reminding you to have safer sex and use condoms:

Virginity pledges are a part of some abstinence-only programs and have even gotten big endorsements from celebrities like Jordin Sparks and the Jonas Brothers. The idea makes sense on paper: Take a virginity pledge and promise to not have sex. This pledge is supposed to help you remain abstinent, and we know abstinence is the only birth control that is 100-percent effective at preventing pregnancy and STDs. But what if taking a pledge doesn’t work, or even worse, puts you at risk for pregnancy and STDs?

According to a new study, teens that take virginity pledges are just as likely to have sex as teens that don’t take a pledge. Teens that pledged had just as many sexual partners and started having sex at the same age as those that didn’t pledge. And the teens that took the pledge were less likely to use protection when they eventually had sex!

You just can’t take a virginity pledge, cross your fingers and hope to not have sex! What happens if you don’t stick to your pledge and never learned about how to protect yourself from pregnancy and STDs? Whether or not you take a virginity pledge, make sure you know where to get tested, how to get birth control and how to properly use a condom. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared!

This year marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. You probably weren’t even born when World AIDS Day first started. But since 1988, the 1st of December is a day to come together and raise awareness about the global AIDS epidemic.

AIDS is a major health concern for everyone on the planet. And the solution to this global problem has to start from the bottom up—it starts with you! Do your part to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS: Get educated about the virus and how it’s transmitted.

If you’ve never had sex, great! Abstaining from oral, anal and vaginal sex is the only way to be 100- percent safe from HIV/AIDS. And if you’ve already had sex, that’s OK. Make sure you and your partner get tested for HIV. You may choose to stop having sex, as that’s the safest choice. But if you choose to continue having sex, properly using a latex barrier, like a condom or Sheer Glyde dam, each and every time you have oral, anal or vaginal sex, will protect you and your partner from HIV/AIDS, too.

Want to test your knowledge of HIV/AIDS? Play AVERT.org’s game, AIDS Challenge. Or try their World AIDS Day Quiz.

How would you react to hearing that as many as 50 people in your high school may have been exposed to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS? It sounds like a really bad nightmare, but it’s the real deal for teens at Normandy High School in Normandy, MO. To find out if anyone has been exposed, students are being tested for HIV on a voluntary basis, one class at a time.

The school district doesn’t know who may have exposed the students to HIV or how it was transmitted. And the lack of information has some students scared. A 16-year-old sophomore said her boyfriend, who attends another school, broke up with her after hearing the news; a rival school’s football team didn’t want to play against Normandy; and some students even wanted to transfer out of the school district entirely!

These are all examples of the fear people have of HIV when they don’t have the facts about the virus and how it’s transmitted. HIV is spread through blood, semen, vaginal fluids or breast milk. And you can only be exposed to HIV through direct contact with those fluids through high-risk behaviors—like unprotected oral, anal or vaginal sex or sharing needles. So unless you’ve engaged in these risky behaviors, there’s zero chance of getting infected.

There’s only one way to know if someone has HIV—getting tested. So if you decide to have sex, you and your partner should get tested and find out each other’s status. And if you have oral, anal or vaginal sex, use latex barriers, like condoms or Sheer Glyde dental dams. And remember: not having oral, anal or vaginal sex is the only way to guarantee you won’t get HIV from sex.

Think you can tell if someone has HIV? Posornot.com, a new Web site from mtvU, challenges you to tell whether or not someone is HIV positive just by looking at his or her picture.

You might think it’s easy to spot someone who’s HIV positive. You might use the way a person looks, his or her interests or even where a person lives as clues to his or her status. But in real life, it’s impossible to guess whether or not a person is HIV positive just by looking at him or her. There’s only one way to know if you or someone else is HIV positive or not—an HIV test.

HIV doesn’t discriminate, and anyone that has sex can be at risk of infection. People are often infected with HIV and don’t even realize it. That’s why it’s so important to talk to your partner about getting tested BEFORE having sex. And if you both decide to take the plunge and have sex, make sure to properly use condoms each and every time you have vaginal, anal or oral sex.

The best way to prevent the spread of HIV is to know your status and practice safer sex. Friday, June 27th is National HIV Testing Day. So find a low-cost clinic in your area and get tested.