Sex and the City Subway

(Robert Caplin/Bloomberg News)

As wrong as NYC can be on issues like affordable housing and a police brutality and racism, they are getting something right in the areas of STD prevention and birth control:

In just a month, the city gave away five million of its new subway-themed condoms, officials said yesterday. Lest you read past that number unimpressed, consider that that was about two condoms for every man living in the city — more than the city distributed in all of 2003....

The city began giving away condoms in 1971, but for decades they were available only in city-run health clinics and from H.I.V. service groups. But a few years ago, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began recruiting bars, restaurants, block associations, theaters, shops, doctors’ offices and even churches to hand out the condoms.

And here's a blast from the past (the 1993 NY mayoral election) regarding Republican Presidential Hopeful, Rudolph Giuliani:

Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose 1989 campaign for mayor at times became bogged down in questions about his commitment to abortion rights, sought yesterday to remove the issue from his 1993 campaign by emphatically endorsing a woman's right to choose abortion without limitations....

Questions from women attending the meeting went to some of the most divisive issues of the last year, particularly in education. On condom distribution and the teaching of the rainbow curriculum, which encourages tolerance for homosexuals, in New York City schools, Mr. Giuliani sought a middle ground, explaining that he backs both but would leave room for for parental discretion.

That's right, America's Mayor was in favor of making condoms available in schools and curricula that promote tolerance and understanding of LGBT people.

(Michael Millhollin)