Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992 TAG: 9202140287
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
TECH'S `KING CONDOM' GETS SILLY FOR GOOD CAUSE
Until a few weeks ago, Ed Chamberlayne had never really pictured himself quite like . . . this.Yet, for the past few lunch hours he has donned his pink garment bag, pulled on his white T-shirt, put on a crown he borrowed from the homecoming king - and become King Condom.
His cause is Condom Awareness Week, an annual event at Virginia Tech in connection with Valentine's Day. A national condom awareness week begins today.
"It seems everyone is really upset, really scared to have anything to do with a condom. They treat it like it's a disease in itself," Chamberlayne says.
He is serious, although there is fun in his outfit and fun in the way he interacts with the public, tossing out freebies from what he calls his "Cauldron of Condoms."
"I'm trying to be humorous about safe sex, but at the same time make people more aware about it, more comfortable with it."
So far, it seems to be working, said Kellie Crawford, a graduate student who helped organize the awareness week.
Student Health Services has given away thousands of condoms, she said, and students seem to be talking about safe sex a little more freely.
King Condom is "one way to break the ice."
Chamberlayne of Alexandria, a member of the corps of cadets, was recruited to this task by friends. But in the future, it should be easy to get people to play the role.
He's received calls from people asking if they could be King Condom. The education office of health services also has received calls.
This year, though - except tonight when other people will borrow the suit to make guest appearances at parties - it's all Ed's.
"I don't see anything wrong with it," Chamberlayne said. "People our age have sex, so why hide it?"
Spokesmen talk about abstinence as a way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, particularly the HIV virus, cause of the fatal disease AIDS. But that's not realistic, Chamberlayne says.
And if people, particularly students, are going to have sex, they may as well be safe about it.
"We know that if everybody who's having sex would use condoms, the AIDS epidemic would slow way down," said JoAnn Underwood, health educator at Tech. "They're not 100 percent reliable, but it sure beats taking wild and crazy chances."
Abstinence is the only sure-fire disease-prevention method, she said.
But studies across the country show that students are still having sex, and they still have a carefree attitude toward it.
"The figures make me weep," Underwood said. "The young ones don't see people in their group as having the problem. But that's where it starts."