ountains

BY PETER KURTH

I've just finished reading
new novel by David
vitt, The Page Turner, which
he story of an 18-year-old
iring pianist, Paul
terfield, and the trouble he
s into when he has a love
air with an older man.
ut twenty years older, to be
ct — more than twice his
. The object of Paul's affec-
s is Richard Kennington, a
ld-famous concert pianist
0 was himself seduced as a
ager by his manager. Paul
5 up sleeping with the
ager, too, after Kennington
eremoniously dumps him,
the younger man is re-
ed to a bundle of disillu-
ment, disempowerment
heartache by the time the
y ends.
”Don’t have any illusions
ut pain,” Paul's piano
er tells him. ”Only a child
eves that joy is infinite and
ering is short.... Joy is short,
1, but suffering — suffering

[I

S.

Two things occur to me
r finishing this pop moral-
ale. One is the general ob-
ion with youth in gay cul-
, and the other is the knee-
acceptance of the idea that
al relations between older
and younger men, even
s, is by definition ’abusive.’
re so sold on the idea that
is about power and not
ut pleasure, that the young
inherently good and that
lts who sleep with them are
rently evil, that we've lost
t of the naturalness and
of
rgenerational relation-
3.
Please understand that
n I say ’boys’ I'm not talk-
-1»: about 8-year—olds. The law

  

Program expands

continued from front page

There is also a women's
program in the planning
stages. Cindy Garnish, the
education and prevention co-
ordinator, along with a student
from SVC, Cynthia Himmel,
are working on a woman's
education party.

There have been two
m.eetings with Donna
Kennedy from the hemophilia
community and they are be-
girming to address the needs of
persons suffering from this dis-
ease, with the possibility of
HIV in their lives as well. The
Bennington HIV/AIDS Ser-
vice Program emphasizes their
dependence on the support of
the gay and lesbian commu-
nity.

set a limit on the definition of
childhood and agrees that by
16 a young man is at the age of
sexual consent, although law-
suits can still be brought
against ‘predators’ if the 16-
year—old’s parents happen to
object. There isn't any way
around this. A line has to be
drawn somewhere, but as any-
one acquainted with teenagers
can tell_ you, there's a wide
variation in experience and
maturity even at the magic age
of 16. Some are ready, some are
not. Few, in any case, are ‘in-
nocent’ i.n the way the culture
likes to think.

God knows, I wasn't.
Like most teenagers, male and
female, I was obsessed with
sex for years before I actually
had it, and so were all of my
friends, without exception.
This was in the 1960's, not that
it matters — there was never a
time in history when children
weren't assumed to have ‘im-
pure thoughts’ and, for that
matter, to be up to no good,
plotting seductions, and ‘play-
ing with themselves’ when
they should have been keeping
their hands on the table in full
view. In contrast to our current
understanding of the adult/
child sexual dynamic, which
insists that children are always
victims, earlier cultures actu-
ally saw it the other way
around: Children were consid-
ered to be wild, wily, pagan,
and dangerous to the stability
of society. It was adults who
were thought to need protec-
tion against them. You can see
this for yourself by picking up
any religious treatise or public
health manual written before
the turn of the century — be-
fore the age of psychotherapy,
I should say, which regards
everyone as victims, but re-
serves judgment and oppro—‘
brium for what are loosely

Curbside V

  
  
   
  
  
     
  
    

called ‘pedophiles.’

The truth is that sex, at
any age, is not about power or
pleasure, but about power and
pleasure and many things be-
sides. Sex is nature itself, no
matter who’s involved in it.
That children need protecting

is not in dispute. That young I

men and women need some
means of sexual expression is
also not in dispute, or
shouldn't be, and sometimes
sex with an older adult is ex-
actly what's called for. In my
own case, I can say truthfully
that my first love affair with a
man, at the age of 16, was both
wonderful and awful. Wonder-
ful, because it confirmed the
nature of my desire; because
my lover knew what he was
doing, and because wild
horses couldn't have kept me
out of his bed. Awful, because
social strictures against homo-
sexuality and against the dif-
ference in our ages required
that we be secretive about
what we were doing. We could
not be open, we could not be
natural, and we both internal-
ized the experience as some-
thing shameful. It took years to
work this out, not because I
had been the victim of an
abuser, but because we were
both the victims of the culture.

,_ That said, I want to go on
the record as saying that I have
no sexual interest whatsoever
in teenagers. Given the choice
between men and boys I'll take
men any day of the week. I
don't understand most of my
gay male contemporaries’ fixa-
tion with youth — their own
and other people's — but I do
remember how important it
was for me to be taken in hand,
years ago, by a man with hair
on his chest. And I think David
Leavitt ought to come up with
a happy ending next time.

 

  

__ OUT IN THE MouNTAiNs — APRIL 1998 — 5

(802) 524-6135

 

Fnesu SEAFOOD, LUNCHE5. Dmuens. SPECIALTY Fooos. Cm-zmms
65 Noam Mm Smear Sr. ALBANS, VT 05478

 

 
   
   

I

9/

Seafood
and Sh?/zk Tavern
LUDLOW'S PFIEM|ERE DINNER HOUSE

  

V 1  1. . . - N > ' .
Route1(l3 - Ludlow, Vermont - 802-228-5622
Visit Our Web Page: http: / X www.sover.net/ ~sc-nfoodl

 
    

roups

Golden Threads
. /\/\,.»ec \,  \/

Discreet Contact Publication for
Lesbian Women over 50,
and younger

http: I lrnembers.aol.corn/ goldenlred I indexhlm
Sample Copy $5 email: GOLDENTRED@ao1.com

P. O Box 65, Richford, VT 05476-0065

Triangle Ministries A‘-VAYQVAV
Acenter For Lesbian 8: Gay Spiritualoevvelopment

Individual, Couple 8rGroupACounseling '
Commi1iment‘Service_s, Workshops 8r Retreats

_ A ‘Key. Christine 5. Leslie, M.Div.
.14 White Birch Lang ._ Williston, VT 05495
802-860-7106 - Email: r‘:evcsl@aol.eom‘ I
.http:/lniembers.aol.com/revcsl '

    

  BY ROBERT Kxnsv

 

COVER HERE ls

HI6H.... MAYSE w
SHoUk.D rust o R
A MoviE INSTEAD.

    
    
  
 

Aw, anon! 12:30 AM

KIND/\ I'LL PA

      

-—A

UP THERE INSTEAD. .
You've BEEN $ouND-

me PRETIY Cyoop
- L ATE LY,

, WAITANP see! H

      

   
    
  
  
  
   

THIS gmo 5\)<.K5. l."1S No wrmr 1' SAYING is
You ouc—,Hm 55 ~ THA1’ wneuz we ALONG ro
MY ow c.AP.?6NTEK's on 5131 p
MENSIDN RECORDS. I REALLY /~15/w

IT AND NOT IN THATSTOOPID R5116
“Ilzo~ac"seNs£ exrue ..THlS Po51'—.
mg ms Even. o_r_~s£ AFIlA|D
THE] “Coot. BY SHOW-

AN HONEST EMOTION. I. FOR
NE,PLANTD snw REAL.‘-,Hic‘ _ ,

      
  
  

      
    

      

  

 
 

N0 I'HAvEN'T.
Bo? I. NILL BE~

 
 

  

-~ an 3Aa<_/

0:"$o

So

 
 
   
    

NOND I WANAI/\ SE5
HEB \l€E...owa THE w’oIlLP Iégxlqn

Youk EYGS,

I'M A wmmz!
MY sivkizs Me

   

 
 

 
 

P-EAL 1

 
   

‘ Guess we sense V
Ger eowe, Hun?

ma; w
 _‘ 3’\)sT Assoou
' T1-us.

H" AS]: mmsn

  
 
 

 
  

} \‘

 

htlpz//www.visi.com/~opruirie/