Gordon Clay here. Happy VD. I mean, Happy Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is the combination of the Old Roman festival Lupercalia celebrating love, both heterosexual and homosexual merged with the Christian feast of St. Valentine. More importantly, this is National Condom Day, a day designed to overcome eight year's of the Bush administration's distorted educational direction to push abstinence and eliminate any positive discussion of safe sex or condoms.

In reality, abstinence pledges have over an 80% failure rate and when those who initially made the pledge not to have sex before marriage, have sex, they, too often, ignore condoms because they were prevented from learning the beneficial aspects of condom use. Results are often an STD or unplanned pregnancy.

There are an estimated 15.3 million cases of sexually transmitted infections diagnosed every year in the United States. Many people with an STI don't even know that they have one.

We encourage people to talk openly and honestly with their sexual partners about their sexual history and the sensitive subject of condoms as a way to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections. Condoms offer the best protection for people who do have sex. Remember to "love responsibly" by protecting one another's sexual health. If you have questions about condoms, STDs or AIDS, call the CDC hotline at 800-232-4636 or the ASHA Hotline at 800.227.8922, Monday through Friday, 8A-8P (EST)