Sometimes American couples cannot agree on this subject and stop seeing each other for this reason. If you decide that your are going to enter into either a short term or a long term sexual relationship with someone, you should realize that you will need to behave responsibly. You will need to decide what form of birth control you will use and you will need to remember that responsible sexually active people need to use condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including the AIDS virus. You will discover that attitudes surrounding heterosexual and homosexual relationships are fairly liberal on college campuses but not quite as free in the general population. There are cities and towns in which unmarried couples who live together are not accepted.
Attitudes regarding homosexuality vary greatly from community to community.
New York, San Francisco and Rochester are three cities where homosexual couples are numerous, accepted and generally quite open about their relationships but there are other places where homosexuals are made to feel uncomfortable and excluded from society. The United States is a large country made up of people whose ancestors immigrated here from all over the world and brought with them their values and beliefs. Those values and beliefs have been handed down to each generation and mixed with other values and beliefs learned from classmates and neighbors. There is an openness and freedom of belief that can be confusing to international students who may come from a country and culture which is strict in its attitudes and norms of behavior. It is important to retain one's own values while making friends with Americans and it is important to know that Americans will, for the most part, accept and respect you as you are.