On March 6 The Barrett Community Assistants hosts Cream ‘n Condoms, an event that will promote safe sex and sexual health. The group handed out free lemonade, ice cream, condoms, key chains, boxers and shirts promoting the event. (Photo by Ana Ramirez)As students lined up Wednesday at the Tempe campus to get free lemonade, they were asked a simple question: “Do you always get consent?” Attached to the table, a banner read “These lemons were squeezed with consent.”
The student organization I ALWAYS Get Consent! were among the clubs participating in the annual Cream 'N Condoms event where students got free scoops of ice cream, lemonade and information about safe sex practices.
Kinesiology senior Emily O’Malley, one of the Barrett, the Honors College Community Assistants who organized the event, said its purpose was to promote safe sex and consent.
“We are trying to cover all the different facets of safe sex,” she said. “People have always loved the program. It’s a lot of fun.”
This is the third year O’Malley has coordinated Cream 'N Condoms.
“The most important thing students will get from today is that the best kind of sex is safe sex,” she said.
Members of the student-led Devils in the Bedroom showed students who gathered around their table the proper way to put on a condom and how to check whether they were damaged or had expired.
The organization is a peer-education group dedicated to ensuring ASU students are having safe, consensual sex, global health freshman and member Afsoon Shirazi said.
Before handing out condoms, Shirazi and others asked students trivia questions about communication, consent and safe sex.
“We want to make sure that for the students who are Sun Devils in the bedroom that they are having safe sex with condoms, or female condoms or dental dams,” she said. “We also try to really focus on the idea of consent (and) making sure that people are giving a vocal yes or no.”
Shirazi, who interned with the nongovernmental organization International Rescue Committee, said she has always been interested in teaching sex education. She said students at ASU know Devils in the Bedroom as the club that gives out condoms, but it also wants to make sure students get information before having those condoms.
“We want to promote overall sexual safeness,” she said. “Especially since now is spring break season, we want to make sure that, if students do decide to have sex, they’re doing it correctly, getting consent and that they have fun.”
Kinesiology and psychology senior Gabby Kissinger, a member of I ALWAYS Get Consent!, said the organization, which has existed for three years, looks to promote the idea that everybody needs to take steps to prevent sexual assault.
“It started off when one student here at ASU was sexually assaulted, and she decided that she not only wanted to help herself with the healing process, but she wanted to help others,” she said.
Sexual assault and unprotected sex are big problems on the campus, Kissinger said, so the organization wants to make sure students are practicing safe and consensual sex.
Marketing freshman Vince Velez said the event was original, entertaining and an innovative way to learn about safe sex.
“In general, there’s not enough information out there,” he said. “It’s a taboo when it comes to promoting safe sex, because people think they’re promoting promiscuity, which they’re not.”
The most important thing to take from the event is the idea of consent, Velez said. Most people don’t know a lot about safe sex, he said.
“Most sex education is abstinence-based,” Velez said. “If sex is happening, it should be safe and there should be information out there.”
Biomedical engineering freshman Lars Moss said he thought the event was a really good idea, because spring break is approaching and students should know everything about safe sex.
“I think there are enough (sex education) events out there,” he said. “But they need more visibility.”
Mechanical engineering freshman Kelsie Urias said events like Cream 'N Condoms are necessary and very beneficial.
“People are like ‘Hey, ice cream!’ and then they learn all these things,” she said. “I think a lot of the issues that we have right now are because people don’t know how to be safe. People are so uninformed.”
Reach the reporter at dpbaltaz@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @dpalomabp
