Put a Condom on Your Cowboy

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Zoey Duncan reports for openfile, 6 Jul 2012:

 

http://www.openfile.ca/calgary/blog/2012/condom-your-cowboy-campaign-underway-stampede

 

 

The Calgary Stampede is underway and so are the boozy parties it inspires. With that in mind, a coalition of local health services have joined together once again to remind Calgarians not to ride bareback this Stampede.

 

Alberta Health Services, along with AIDS Calgary, the Sharp Foundation and the Calgary Sexual Health Centre, are asking cowpokes to "Put a condom on your cowboy" when hitting the hay with a stranger. Throughout the city, 170 bars and adult-only establishments have been given more than 700 posters, featuring a hairy-chested, denim-wearing and mysterious-looking urban cowboy holding a condom.

 

Dr. Judy MacDonald, medical health officer with Alberta Health Services, tells OpenFile the safe sex campaign is taking a two-pronged approach. First, it aims to remind people how important it is to use protection to reduce the likelihood of getting a sexually transmitted infection. Second, they want to encourage Calgarians to get tested at a sexual health clinic if they do engage with any new partners this Stampede.

 

Every establishment that's been given posters has also received packages of condoms to give to its staff members. And representatives from the campaign will be targeting people waiting in line at bars throughout the Stampede, handing out packages containing a few condoms, as well as a pin featuring a cowboy hat that vaguely resembles a condom.

 

Dr. MacDonald said she didn't have any data to prove the number of positive STI tests increased following the Stampede, but she said the Stampede certainly impacted the number of people who visit Alberta Health Services' sexually transmitted infection clinic for a test.

 

"These client visits tend to drop a bit during Stampede week," she says. "So, not as busy as in the two weeks before and the two weeks after. Don't know specifically that that translates specifically to more STIs, but certainly people are not coming during Stampede week."

 

The Sheldon Chumir clinic downtown offers a phone-in advice line about STIs as well as walk-in tests.

 

[Code Blue 3585]

Which song was it that said:

 

" Save a horse, ride a cowboy!" ?

 

Sorry, it's Sunday and I haven't had enough coffee!

 

CB

[Phaedrus 209521]

And representatives from the campaign will be targeting people waiting in line at bars throughout the Stampede, handing out packages containing a few condoms, as well as a pin

 

I'd just like to say that that was a really unfortunate place for a line-break :)

[Touch 57501]

I'd just like to say that that was a really unfortunate place for a line-break :)

 

Yikes, you are as sharp as a pin Phaedrus!