HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

Salt Lake City has become the first Olympic host city where a quarter- million "safer sex kits" are distributed to the public.

The agencies organizing the SafeGames effort are Planned Parenthood of Utah, the American Red Cross and the Harm Reduction Project. They will send 120 SafeGames 2002 volunteers into downtown Salt Lake City and Park City to hand out free condoms, glow sticks, hand warmers, lip balm, and health information cards

"We saw the Olympics as a prime opportunity to bring our message to the forefront," added Kait Humphrey of the Red Cross. The message is that "HIV is an entirely preventable disease."

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Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson said that he was pleased that his city would make Olympic history with distribution of the kits.

But others were not so pleased. "Why aren't they distributing information about chastity?" protester Brandi Swindell asked. "If you're going to do something in the name of public health and safety, I say go for something that's 100 percent effective."

Christian activists also protested the free condoms available inside the athlete's Olympic Village. The two protesters disagreed with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's (SLOC) decision to stock the village with 12,000 condoms.

While the 1998 Winter games in Nagano did not provide condoms, the 2000 Olympics in Sydney did. In fact, the condoms were such a hit in Sydney that the village was challenged to keep them stocked.

Editor's Note: from the Deseret News and Associated Press