Side-Lines

Back in the 50s, I knew a gay man who was also an extremely successful major company executive. He owned a summer home in the little mountain resort town where I lived. He was the first gay man I was ever aware of. I noticed he came on vacation with a different boy friend every summer. They seemed conventional and respectable in every way except they did not keep company with women. At least not for the purpose of sex. He and his boy friends were not interested in committed relationships. They liked the freedom to change partners whenever the mood struck them. Gay men that I happened to become acquainted over the years after that were also very promiscuous and reveled in it.

What happened that changed that attitude? AIDS. It was AIDS. They started dying. Many were young and had no health insurance. Some knew or were in relationships with men who had health insurance through their employment, but they couldn't access it for treatment. That was when gay men began to ask why they couldn't get benefits for their partners. That's when their attitude changed. They began to recognize the wide range of benefits that spouses were eligible for, and that they could not have. They began to feel as if they were deprived or discriminated against. We know where it has led. From the days of no commitment before the 1980s to today's demands for "equality" and "Gay Marriage."

When medical science develops a vaccine against AIDS, I predict that gay men will gradually lose interest in committed relationships and go back to the "good old days" of freedom and promiscuity.

Promiscuity has penalties; it isn't just a poufter problem as today's young are learning.

One needs to remember that the Gay Population is about 3% or slightly less. All the screaming really was about being forced to change a lifestyle.

"Sex is the most fun for amateurs"

Perhaps the Latin "Amator" would be a better fit. But then, Sex has become a professional sport in this epoch. ah well.

"Tom of Finland"

Oh great. I googled that and now I've got to temper my good impression of the Finland that won the Winter War and produced Linus Torvalds with the Finland that produced Touko Laaksonen. It's just another country with feet of clay.

Gay Pride;

When the HIV virus was discovered in the early 80's the Health Department of San Francisco asked that gay bath-houses voluntarily close. They refused.
The Health Dept was forced to board the doors for public safety.

Has medical science ever developed a vaccine to combat a virus?

Yes, there vaccines for viruses: flu, FIV, polio, etc.

Gerard,

I'm pleased to see you continuing to post this link (3rd time by my count.) It deserves to be widely read.

The takeaway quotes for me are, regarding the recent re-discovery of sport-fucking by young men,

I see what many call game as a kind of gateway masculinity. Game is essentially assertiveness training for a generation of young men who spent most of their lives playing "mother may I?"

And, in re the ultimate futility of Bonobo Culture,

As Hunter S. Thompson noted, sex is the most fun for amateurs. It's great when you're young, pretty, naïve and carefree -- but "old whores don't do much giggling."

But the take-away word picture of impact is this:

Now everyone wants to be a player and a porn star. Everyone wants to be the kind of monkey that all of the other monkeys wants to rub up against.

Bonobo Masturbation Society would be a good band name.

Chuck,

Finland lost the Winter War; no reserves.