Remember in Sex Ed. class when the teacher brought out a banana and showed everyone how to properly place a condom on a penis? Well, you either learned it in class or any great 90s high school movie! But that’s beside the point…

How many of us, though, actually practice what we’ve been taught?

I know what you’re thinking—why on earth is this guy talking to us about wearing a condom? It’s not like we haven’t heard this a thousand times before. The other day, though, I was watching RuPaul’s Drag Race on LOGO (the network for LGBTQ people), and a good friend of mine noticed that in a sea of commercials glorifying KY lube, living healthy with HIV, “gaycation” spots and even the best vibrators to use, there were absolutely no commercials about condoms. Not even a cheesy Trojan commercial!

Now I don’t mean to sound like a prude, but in a community that struggles with ridding itself from carrying an HIV/ AIDS stereotype, we have to promote condom usage. It’s absolutely essential. We’re all having sex, and it’s great, but if we’re not completely sure of the other person’s sexual disease status, we need to protect ourselves.

And to every person reading this who stands HIV positive, I mean you no harm or judgment. If anything, you’re one of the biggest influences in our community who can promote safe sex and getting tested regularly.

The scary truth is that 1 in 5 gay men have HIV, and nearly half of them don’t know about it. In the words of a sassy gay friend of mine: Girl, that’s a problem!

But it’s a problem we know how to easily prevent.

So spend the couple of bucks and buy some condoms, so this Valentine’s Day you can wrap it up, boys!