Adults need gov't to tell them to wear condoms?

It is disappointing to hear that, after years of progress in controlling HIV, a new super strain of the disease has emerged. It is also disappointing to hear that concerned gay activists are trying to shuck their community's self responsibility and instead place the blame on government:

Gay activists, while recognising the responsibility of their own community to promote safe sex, argue that the federal government has hampered progress by favouring a message of abstinence over condom use.

These people are adults. They don't need the government to stand over their shoulder and tell them to use a condom. Adults know that you don't send your soldier to war without his flak jacket on. Adults make the conscious decisions not to wear one. Trying to claim that a government message of abstinence is partly responsible for this is to do a disservice to the gay community. Community leaders should instead be chastising those in their community who are practicing hazardous and irresponsible sex lives.