Aggies for Reproductive Justice handed out more than 225 condoms to Northgate-goers Friday night as part of their monthly “condom crawl.”
The event was a way to remind students to be safe and protect themselves from unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Bianca Mason, senior history major and president of Aggies for Reproductive Justice, also known as Pro-Choice Aggies, said the event was a way to provide students and members of the B-CS community with a way to be safe.
“We always get some people who don’t want them and that’s fine.” Mason said. “Sometimes they’ll say comments that show that they didn’t really have good sex education and don’t really understand how things work, but we just go along. We’re just there to hopefully make more students safe on campus or at least give them access to products that will keep them safe.”
Mason said that the group often receives many positive reviews as well from recipients.
“I definitely feel like a lot of people are really grateful that we are around,” Mason said. “Having a place where they can get condoms every Friday and a place where they can get resources that some people don’t feel comfortable going to other places for.”
Laura Reid, psychology major and group vice president, said the event is one that is usually held monthly by the organization.
“Usually we start it out as an unofficial social,” Reid said. “We meet at an officer’s house and basically tape instructions and fun facts to the condom packets and then we decide on how many we are going to put in a bag and then we all meet at Northgate. Then we loop around Northgate until all of the packets are handed out.”
Group members said they feel it’s especially important to host events like the “condom crawl” in a state like Texas to better sexual education.
“Part of my organization’s job is to try to inform people about reproductive rights and since we know that college students are typically sexually active, we want those who are to kind of be safe so that they are both protected from diseases and pregnancy.” Reid said
Jessica Balderas, anthropology sophomore and group member, said she joined the organization because she wanted to provide a place where students can talk openly about sex.
“My sex education class in high school wasn’t very thorough and so when I started hanging out with some older people who talked more openly about sex, I learned a lot from them,” Balderas said. “I would really like to be that person for other people, where they can just ask questions and not feel embarrassed or scared.”
The group encourages anyone interested to stop by its table in 12th Man Hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Friday.