Thursday, June 11, 2009

Rally Today: Unlock the Condoms at CVS

There is a rally scheduled for today at 12:30 at the CVS at 6 Dupont Circle in D.C. Never fear, there will be plenty of protection... but you may have to ask for it. In fact, that is precisely what this rally is about. According to the Washington Business Journal, this is a part of the "Cure CVS: Unlock the Condoms" initiative.

After five minutes of solid thinking, the only defense that I have come up with for CVS is that maybe the condoms present a choking hazard for children rummaging around the store and opening things up? In that case, I would like to see balloons, rubber gloves, and anything smaller than a child's fist locked up, too. Seriously, that is the only reason that I can dream up.

According to the EarthTimes, individuals involved in this initiative have concluded that the condoms are locked up more frequently in areas with higher instances of HIV/AIDS. If that is actually a fact, then I am personally appalled and horrified by CVS, and you should be, too. There is going to be a press conference at the rally where members of the initiative will release a letter that asks CVS to create a policy to ensure that condoms are unlocked in all of its stores.

If we are silent about the issue of locking up condoms, who knows where this could lead? Anyway, you should go out to this rally to support the the right to easily accessible contraceptives! If they refuse, Walgreens is right down the road, and their condoms are right on the shelf...

If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact campusteam@feminist.org.

2 comments:

JLou said...

I guess we should also start making people show their marriage license in order to buy condoms ... probably should lock up dental dams as well. That makes sense...

Karen said...

I'm pretty sure the rationale is that condoms are more likely to be stolen than other goods. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.

It may also be that HIV/AIDS has a higher incidence in low-income areas, where there is a perception that more goods are stolen. Thus, higher incidence of HIV/AIDS correlates with higher incidence of condoms being locked up. (That's all pure conjecture. Probably time for me to check sources.)