I personally think Middle School and High School is partly to blame. I know they teach Abstinence and Heterosexual friendly sex-education only classes here and then they wonder why so many people get an STD of some sort and girls getting pregnant. Really, students need to be taught how to protect their self when it comes to sex... otherwise they will do what the older people have done, and protection during sex has never been as well taught as it should be. If they have unprotected sex as teenagers, when they're in more diverse crowds the same practices are still in play. I know when I attended my little brother's PTA meetings, it came up and there were only three out of like the 45 parents that actually attended want Sex-education to include more than abstinence. I was the only one that wanted them to include homosexual sexual protection. Then that year 11 girls, one in middle school, were pregnant. There was also a small syphilis outbreak as well. Now the next fall school term (August 2008) they are teaching safer sex in health classes in my school district, but still on heterosexual topics and completely surrounding the condom, and abstinence. I still think it's not enough, but at least it's a step. It wasn't because my preaching changed their minds.. it was because it has become a problem that has led to dangerous lifestyles.
People don't get tested also, because they think they don't need to. They also don't get tested enough, and I think, a person should test after every new sexual partner. Also, every time they perform unprotected sex. Even people in "committed" relationships should test regularly. I personally get myself tested two times a year, but I don't get out of the house much anymore.
I have also heard a lecture on safe-sex and the speaker said, "some people think the only way people get aids or any other disease is through sharing needles." I don't know how large that number is, or if it was just a, "wake up and listen" shock-tactic to keep people interested in the lecture at hand.. but I hope that's a small number of people that was representing that idea.
Krista