Archive Home Page A different perspective and I can't argue with your experiences. Maybe I'm the warped one and all young males 12-19 living on the streets are happy being hustlers. You're certaintly proof that it's possible. If everyone is comfortable with the current status of how gay teenagers are treated by our culture (both gay and straight) then who am I to argue. These discussions take a LOT out of me and I'm going to leave this field for others.
Labels are a big big issue here. I could make a case for every single human being that walks the earth being "victims", however you'll find my metaphysical discussions often taking a decidedly different tact (volunteers not victims). Proof by singular example is a big problem in these discussions as well (I'm guilty of it as well).
Other issues include the foundations laid by religion for not only do they give gay teenagers the standard self-loathing that accompanies their belief systems ie. "I am not worthy", but then they give gay children an extra scoop of self-hatred and insecurity and fear and guilt by teaching that being gay is a sin and forcing their sexuality underground.
And against this background, enter adult boy lovers who to a man have nothing but the highest respect for the basic dignity and choices of their willing partners...
One point to remember is that the AVERAGE age of abuse for both boys and girls, gay and straight, is 11 years old.
Fortunately so far there are two thing that have been mostly missing from this discussion (and they are usually present).
One is from the gay community itself in the belief that the hard questioning of obvious problems within our sub-culture is nothing more than doling out internalized homophobia. I think this community is far enough in our own internal development that we really do need to look hard at how we treat each other and especially young gay people. There is a current discussion in one of the gay teen folders here that shows another side of the questions that young gay people are dealing with.
The second is the most interesting ommision for this folder itself is a prime target for the wandering outside hate dumpers to pronounce judgement and polarize the discussion. Yet for the last two months we 've heard nothing. Very interesting. If I may venture a prophetic guess, I suspect that they too are going to soon be deeply involved in asking real hard questions about what their community is doing to both to it's own members and others.