Received this very interesting e-mail, that just happened to coincide along a conversation I had with a gay friend in San Francisco only a few days before. Here is an excerpt from the e-mail:
“Yes, your experience may have been exceptionally more depraved than the average man in the lifestyle, but even the worst sexual deviance from the gay 'norm' in the homosexual lifestyle is accepted and tolerated with a chuckle. i.e. NAMBLA, tolerated with a chuckle, BDSM, same, I could go on... to paraphrase C.S. Lewis. A person can maintain a certain level of good, but evil is pretty slippery slope.”
While I talked with my gay buddy, who would be considered rather conservative in homosexual circles, but is still very proud of his orientation and the community at large, the subject of the Folsom Street Fair was brought up; as it played a rather major role in my life. He made the statement that this went to the root of the problem he had with my book: that the “Folsom” crowd and those around them do not represent the gay community, or even a small part of the gay community. While I partially agreed with his contention that the leather-BDSM scene is not one which all gay men partake in, nevertheless, it is celebrated and approved of by the so-called “Betty Crocker,” and equally small, gay “monogamous” minority. At that point, I asked if he, or his high-powered and prestigious gay comrades, would repudiate the Folsom Street Fair. He said they absolutely would not; and that he would rebuke it privately, to me, but not publicly. This all reminded me of the reluctance in the Arab world, and among those is the Irish Sinn Fein, to publicly renunciate terrorist activities done by those in their same political and social spheres. Now, that some homosexual advocates, and their political operatives, are trying to create a more acceptable image of the gay lifestyle, they would rather keep the seamier side of the gay world in the background; and out-of-sight. But they will never abandon it, because male homosexuality is built upon a quest for the ultimate sexual experience; without that restless hope: the gay culture crumbles. Things like Folsom, the bathhouses, and the sex-clubs are the gay man's high-holy places; it is where he communes with the false gods. It is where ritual and worship takes place. But they must be toppled. Then, as is my prayer, they would have to look inward, discover the pains of loss and despair, and, then, turn to God.