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Washington, DC will become the first city in the US to incorporate female condom distribution in its fight against HIV/AIDS. The city’s HIV rates are notoriously high, with rates reaching 3% of the population– higher than West African statistics, and about on par with Kenya and Uganda. The initiative will include providing free female condoms in salons, schools, and convenience stores in high-risk areas.

The motivation for the measure is to empower more girls and women to take control of their sexual health:

Officials said they are turning to female condoms to give women more power to protect themselves from HIV and sexually transmitted diseases when their partners refuse to use protection.

It’s a noble cause, but I am skeptical about its effectiveness. I wonder how many men who refuse to use male condoms will be open to female condom use. Its not as if female condoms are completely inconspicuous. It seems to me that men’s attitudes toward condom usage is the most important factor here. However, I do think that by offering only male condoms, DC (and other cities) is placing an unspoken onus on the man to decide on protection, while the women remain in a more passive role. The inclusion of female condoms creates an attitude that women are active participants, empowered to make health decisions in sexual encounters.

DC has been widely criticized for not properly curtailing its HIV/AIDS problem. The city’s failure to reduce HIV infection, coupled with controversy about HIV organizations’ extravagant travel expenses and missing tax returns, has prompted campaigns such as the one shown below. This poster, prominently featured all over DC, compares Washington’s HIV negligence  to the Bush Administration’s failures during Katrina.

From Common Dreams:

African-American farmers have staged a massive protest in Washington DC calling on the US government to deliver on cash payments promised to the group years ago.

In 1999, black farmers won a landmark case that granted them a billion-dollar compensation settlement on the grounds of racial discrimination by then US authorities.

But now the group says that tens of thousands of African-American farmers have not received the funds that they were promised.

Al Jazeera’s John Terrett reports from Washington DC:

Next weekend is the National Equality March in Washington, DC. The fifth of its kind (the first four were held in 1979, 1987, 1993 and 2000), this particular march has a specific objective: Like all other Americans, LGBT people are guaranteed equal protection by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Free and equal people [...]

U.S. capital city Washington DC is the only place on the U.S. mainland that does not have representation in the U.S. Senate and House just like all other U.S. mainland citizens. Is it because we're mostly Black American and related...

On the 2nd of February, we're expecting more than 200 women to descend on George Washington University for a one day conference on women, feminism and technology.

This is the beginning of a conversation started between different people about the tide of change happening to all kinds of activism, especially in the feminist front. Blogs have become one of the most powerful points of discussion and organizing among a not just a new age of feminists but a new technological tribe of feminists that cross ages, ethnicity, race, ability and even gender itself.

I was in the middle of some of these conversations about the present, past and future of feminism and felt that there was a need to get the veterans and the noobs, the geeks and nerds, the men and women and all the different "tranches" of what we today call "Feminism" in the United States, throw them in a room and just have them shake hands and start conversations, collaborations or debates.

It is my hope that Feminism 2.0 is the first of annual meetings where feminists of all kind can come together to celebrate and air, vent and dream, rinse and repeat

It's why we need your help to spread the word. We need media partners : People who will advertise the event on their blogs, spread the word on their mailing lists, twitter the hell out of what happening, make it a thing on Facebook and MySpace.

If you take the code and decide to help spread the word about Feminism 2.0, please leave your name and a link to your blog in the comments section or use the private message feature at the foot of this post. We want to link back to your blog and acknowledge your contribution.

Ad codes after the jump.  more this way»

Where and When

February 2, 2009
Betts Theater, George Washington University, Washington, DC

Conference fees: $60.00 general; $20.00 student

Conference Goals

To harness the power of women on the Internet to promote women’s issues.

To create a forum – starting with the Fem2.0 website and continuing through the event – for women to discuss the issues that are of most concern to them today, and to encourage them to use the Internet to learn more, express their opinions about them and advocate for policies that benefit women and families.

To create an opportunity for a "meeting of minds" across generations and media platforms.

To unite women’s voices behind the issues that the vast majority of women support, such as education, healthcare, workplace fairness and economic security.

To position women’s issues and their advocates for the incoming administration.

To draw new audiences to women’s issues, especially those who are Internet-focused and can cross-pollinate to increase activism.

Expand the audience of women engaged in online media activity and activism.