I remember those days well. Growing up Roman Catholic as the product of a devout Catholic father and free-thinking Protestant mother - plus being a naive, sheltered, over-intelligent (i.e., a nerd before that was cool), introverted military brat - I needed to work through a lot of moral issues and authority issues before I was ready to act on the gay feelings I'd had since at least age 12 or 13, if not earlier.
So, coming out for me was a long process that didn't take me to meet other gay men in person until I was in college. I didn't have sex until I was a college senior, 1984, just as HIV/AIDS was starting to explode in our consciousness. You'd better believe I had to get a grip on it immediately.
Coming through that long period of moral introspection and arriving at my own judgments, obviously I kept on gathering information, applying logic, and reserving for myself the right to decide what to do - whether in bed, in a club, in a park, a toilet, a parked car, or wherever.
Freedom was so hard won it was worth keeping, and still is.
A lot of that is why I'd said his spiritual approach resonates with me, but I know that it won't for most guys. To each his own.
~ Bob S.
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