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Comments, possibly informed.

Tim Wilson
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
timatollah@mackandtim.net
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Block that "most"! A letter writer to Andrew Sullivan states:

As a gay man who has never looked "boyish," who is not "smooth," I have grown up knowing that most of my fellow gay men are not interesting in fully developed, post-pubescent adults, but are interested in men who look like, or are, younger than 18.

Would the letter writer be so kind as to supply supporting evidence for the use of "most" rather than "some"? Anecdotal personal observations don't count. (Letters to Sullivan are found here. The title of the letter in question is "EPHEBOPHILIA AND THE CULT OF YOUTH".)

Don't get me wrong. There's obviously a good sized youth-and/or-beauty-focused identifiable population among gay men. The question is how does one go about qualifying the size of fraction that group makes up of all gay men. Obviously, I'm skeptical that it's over 50%.

The writer goes on:

Until all queers are able to face the fact that we have created for ourselves a culture that values youth and beauty above all else, and to realize that this obsession creates, in at least some gay men, a deviant and abusive tendency toward sex with minors, we are doomed to continue to create victims as surely as the atrophied Church.

Even if 90% of gay men found the young and beautful exclusively attractive, that fact would in no way justify, excuse, or explain some random priest or any other gay man hitting on some random underage boy. No way. And anyone who's been around enough straight guys watching women's gymnastics knows that it's not only gay guys who might have some disposition -- and who knows whether it's some kind of cultural expression -- towards younger ones when it comes to developing sexual fantasies.

Note that for those numerous horny-talking straight guys (well, horny talking until someone says, "Hey, that's my sister!"), most of them don't go around boinking jail bait. Neither do most gay guys go around boinking underage guys, and while I'm comfortable that my use of "most" is entirely appropriate here, feel free to replace it with "an overwhelming majority".
posted by Tim Wilson at 3:42 PM