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The sexual revolution of the 60s almost put an end to condom use. "Good girls" were willing sex partners, so fewer men turned to professional sex workers, the most prevalent STIs—gonorrhea and syphilis—were easily treated, and the Pill and IUD provided the most effective reversible contraception the world had seen. When HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS, was identified, it became clear that condom use and safer sex could stem the epidemic. Many public health professionals believe that local, state, and federal governments behaved a lot like the social hygienists of the World War I generation as they continued to ignore or deny the need for public condom education. At this point in the epidemic, 25 percent of all HIV infections occur among teenagers—with rates increasing most quickly for teenage women. Yet most school districts still oppose condom distribution among students.

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A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.