“But on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist.” (Matt 14:6-8)
“And when a convenient day was come, Herod made a supper for his birthday, for the princes, and tribunes, and chief men of Galilee. And when the daughter of the same Herodias had come in, and had danced, and pleased Herod, and them that were at table with him, the king said to the damsel: Ask of me what thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he swore to her: Whatsoever thou shalt ask I will give thee, though it be the half of my kingdom. Who when she was gone out, said to her mother, What shall I ask? But she said: The head of John the Baptist. And when she was come in immediately with haste to the king, she asked, saying: I will that forthwith thou give me in a dish, the head of John the Baptist.” (Mark 6: 21-5)
When I read about the gay sex scandal involving “X-Men” movie franchise director Bryan Singer and his notorious gay sex pool parties, I was hardly surprised. Yet, the first thing that popped into my mind was the Herod and Salome affair mentioned to in The Bible. Why? Because the sexual deviances of the rich, famous, and powerful are nothing new. And, Herod is probably one of the penultimate examples; for, Salome, as most experts agree, was most likely a teenager, was Herod’s niece and step-daughter, and was offered up to him as a sexual conquest by her own mother. The party at which this all went down is historically referred to as a commissatio; a Latin term of the debaucherous last hours of a Roman Empire era all-night bender during which the drunken revelers are treated to a variety of erotic dances and the attention of prostitutes. Therefore, the now-infamous orgies engineered by Bryan Singer seem almost comparably epic in scope.
Singer’s West Hollywood pool parties have been a topic of discussion in gay entertainment circles for years. Some parties, co-hosted with fellow gay director Roland Emmerich, have featured more than a thousand celebrants. Emmerich told “The Advocate:” “when [Singer] makes a New Year’s party, there’s like 600, 700 twinks running around and he’s hiding in his room. That’s quite typical.” During one such bash, Singer may have sexually coerced an underage boy and or boys. And, this sort of Herodic penchant for pedophilia is widely acknowledged within the gay community. Even I, as an 18 year old boy, who looked younger, was quickly set upon by older men the very first day I set foot within The Castro. For a few years, I was passed from one aging rich man to another. This shuffle came to an abrupt end at about age 20 when I lost the rosy bloom of youth. One of my more straightforward lovers once mentioned that he loses interest in a boy when they began to sprout too much hair.
What is not under argument is the fact that Singer highly appreciated the twink persona. For a while, when I made a few early films, I was burdened with that twink label. I hated it. Because I had always doubted my masculinity, to be called an effeminate twink made me all the more determined to overcome it. Yet, during my stay in twink-dom, it become perfectly clear just how polarized much of gay sex life truly is; with older thirty-somethings and middle-aged men preying upon younger neophytes. Oftentimes, these boys are insecure and hungry for male approval which they did not receive from their fathers or peers. But, unfortunately, in our over-porn-ized culture, adolescents can become highly confused and think that the father-son scenario, which is endlessly played-out in gay porn, is the standard practice for gay initiation. In the homosexual enclaves of LA, San Francisco, and New York, these porn clichés have become crystallized in the gay mindset. They have become custom. Only because of his high-profile, did any of the misbehaviors of Singer come to light. In the gay ghettoes, its business as usual. For, the exclusivity of the gay neighborhoods, the often high-socio-economic status of its residents, and the passivity of current culture towards anything gay, has created an environment in which boys can be easily abused an exploited. I will never forget one of my clients unexpectedly dragging in a seemingly underage boy – he looked wasted and somewhat scared. Yet, my hot-shot client knew that anything was possible in San Francisco. He was a modern-day Herod: drunk with lust, greed, and power.