Thursday, May 15, 2008

Black Men & the XXL Condom Dilemma

It's mid-May and we are now in the middle of our spring outreach season. As always, the communities that we reach through our work are so excited to see volunteers passing out free condoms and educational material on HIV/AIDS but we are starting to observe some interesting patterns. More and more Black men are expressing reluctance to take our condoms insisting that they need extra-large condoms. We try to explain that, when used correctly, latex condoms will fit anybody but this does not seem to resonate. In some respects, it seems that we have to give in and do a little ego-stroking which seems worth it if at the end of the day it means that more Black men will use condoms.

We recently put in a request with our condom provider to make XXL condoms available. Because of our request, they are now making XXL condoms available to organizations like ours which is wonderful! The struggle continues.....