Richmond participates in World AIDS Day

University of Richmond recognized World AIDS Day on Monday with stickers, buttons and flavored condoms in the Tyler Haynes Commons.

Emblems of support for the global fight against AIDS were distributed to students as they passed through the Commons. Students also received information on how to get checked for HIV through a partnership with Fan Free Clinic, which provides free HIV testing once each semester for all university students, faculty and staff.

Common Ground organized all the events in order to fulfill its mission statement, which says "to provide resources and programs to promote campus harmony and foster an inclusive environment." Ted Lewis, assistant director of LGBTQ campus life, managed the operation on behalf of Common Ground. He said the school’s efforts offered the Richmond community an easy way to show its support.

To help promote the safe-sex aspect of World AIDS Day, Common Ground also provided safer sex kits to promote healthy sexual habits. “The safer sex kits include condoms, lubricant, dental dams [and] flavored condoms,” Lewis said.

The school also included information on how to use condoms for anyone who had opted to sleep through their high school health classes, Lewis said. The school was careful to also keep in mind other sexual issues in the community when creating these kits, he said.

“All our materials come with ‘Ask First’ stickers, which serve as a reminder to get consent before engaging in any form of sexual contact,” he said.

The first World AIDS Day was held in 1988, when the World Health Organization and United Nations announced that every year, Dec. 1 would be dedicated to people living with HIV, AIDS and those who had succumbed to the virus in the past. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation reported: “Since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981, 1.7 million Americans have been infected with HIV and 641,946 have died of AIDS-related causes.” Globally, an estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, which has killed 25 million since 1981, according to Healthline.com.

Contact reporter Jacob Steinfield at jacob.steinfield@richmond.edu