Condom Sense: A Real Life Education

Half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. occur among people ages 25 and younger, but no national platform currently educates young people on preventing the virus. To address this issue, community leaders Howard Brown Health Center, Beyondmedia Education and About Face Theatre joined forces to produce Condom Sense: A Real Life Education. This innovative sex-ed program was created in collaboration with Chicago youth living with HIV.

Howard Brown Health Center, Beyondmedia Education and About Face Theatre are bringing Condom Sense: A Real Life Education into high school classrooms and beyond. The sex-positive LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum aims to change the conversation about AIDS through theater, media, sexual health workshops and demonstrations.

Condom Sense Is...

A Video

HIV: Hey, It's Viral! is a 20-minute video available for purchase from Beyondmedia Education addressing HIV/AIDS prevention and activism from youth perspectives.

The HIV: Hey It's Viral! DVD also includes extra bonus features that explain:

• the biology of HIV
• how to use a condom
• how to get tested for HIV
• individual personal stories of young people living with HIV

Other features include a workbook for educators, an action guide for activists, educational visual aids and more. In 2009, it was approved for use in all Chicago Public High Schools.

A Performance

Set against the backdrop of high school, Fast Forward, a production of About Face Youth Theatre, depicts a world replete with gay-straight alliances, abstinence-until-marriage sex education, cyber-bullying, and gay prom. What has it meant for this generation to grow up in the era of HIV and AIDS? How has it affected the outcomes of their lives? Fast Forward bridges the generation gap between the start of the epidemic and now, and with the audience's help, the ensemble envisions a leap into a better future.

A Curriculum

Howard Brown Health Center, one of the nation's leading LGBTQ health organizations, wrote a lesson plan with Beyondmedia Education and About Face Theatre to accompany the play and video to bring the topics addressed into the classroom. "After $1 billion was spent on the 'abstinence-only-until marriage' curriculum, no federal funding exists for a comprehensive sex education," said Joseph Hollendoner, Director of Howard Brown's Broadway Youth Center. "Statistics like these must spur a new dialogue to combat the spread of HIV and expand the definition of sex education in schools."