Sexperts Weigh In On Hillary Clinton's AIDS-Free Generation

Yesterday, just two days before World AIDS Day, Hillary Clinton rolled out plans to help rid the world of AIDS. While efforts will focus largely in sub-Saharan Africa, where providing access to medication is a major priority, we're not off the hook at home.

There are around 50,000 new HIV infections each year in the U.S. So what efforts can be made here at home to create an AIDS-free generation? According to our experts, it'll take plenty of awareness, mass amounts of education and a whole lot of condom use.  

A Glee Character with HIV?

Okay no, we haven't discussed this with Glee creator Ryan Murphy and yes, Finn and the gang are all healthy (well, as far as we know … there was a time when they thought hot tubs could lead to pregnancy without sex). But introducing HIV/AIDS back into the landscape of pop culture might not be such a bad idea.

If you grew up in the '80s or '90s, surely you remember Pedro, the HIV-positive roommate on "The Real World." Or, if you were a "Degrassi" fan in 1990 (that was pre-Drake era), you may recall Dwayne Myers, the high school character who contracted HIV from a summer fling.
But as medication has improved over the years and we've become more complacent in the fight against AIDS, the disease seems to have disappeared from our social awareness.

"I don't think adolescents are as exposed today as they were in the '80s and '90s," says Emily Morse, a sex and relationship expert and star of the Bravo show "Miss Advised." "Over the past six years AIDS-related deaths have dropped more than 25%, but there are still 1.5 million people dying yearly of AIDS, so we certainly need to step up awareness," she adds. 

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Rebecca Cook of the Sinclair Institute, a source for sexual health, agrees. She says, "[HIV] is no longer considered epidemic, but clearly the numbers indicate that it should be back on the epidemic list." 

Facebook May Get You to "Like" Condoms

One major objective in Secretary Clinton's plan is to promote condom use and distribution. Morse points out that Facebook, Twitter and other kinds of social media are the way to go. "Today everyone is a content creator in their own way," she says. "We have the power to create change through our social networks." Cook adds that YouTube and guerilla marketing from condom companies can have a major impact as well.

Planned Parenthood used Facebook to raise awareness when it launched its "Where Did You Wear It?" campaign earlier this year. The program invites users to check into a virtual map to show where they had safe sex.

Sex Ed Beyond Sixth Grade

Maybe the greatest criticism of sex ed in our country came, surprisingly, by way of the Lindsay Lohan movie "Mean Girls." In one scene the high school gym teacher lectures a class by saying, "If you do touch either, you will get chlamydia … and die." Now imagine if students could get a realistic approach to sex—one in which all forms of contraception got a thorough explanation, pregnancy wasn't the only fear, and homosexual sex got even a mention, considering that gay teens are one of the hardest hit groups in the country when it comes to HIV.

True sex education is one of our greatest tools in the fight against HIV and AIDS, says Moushumi Ghose, a sex therapist based in LA. "Education that informs about different types of sex, not just heterosexual, and that discusses different diseases and different forms of contraceptives needs to be mainstream, not just a course in the sixth grade," she says. Ghose also adds that we need to move beyond the blanket statement USE CONDOMS and make sure that we follow that up with information so that everyone can make knowledgeable choices.