Who am I???
Where do I get off giving advice, consulting, pontificating about any subject? Let me explain....
First of all, why do I deal with gay youth? Because I love them, and want to help them. Why gay youth? They need help the most. They are the most picked on, the most discriminated on and the most vulnerable. Even their own parents often turn against them. Many, many youth, upon confessing to their parents of being gay, and ordered out of their homes. This is after parents have told them all their lives, You can tell me anything. You can come to me with any problem. I will understand. They dont. I do.
So how did I become an expert? Do I have a degree? No.
Homosexuality is not taught in college. Nor do they give degrees in the subject. I became
and expert in the following manner. When I was a kid, I had a brother that way about
fifteen years older than me. He accused me of being homosexual. I later found out he had
been sodomized by a neighbor, and of course, was accusing me of being what he suspected he
was. He thought that, because he had been sodomized, he was gay (they didnt use that
word in those days) or queer, or whatever. He was, to put it bluntly, fucked up. He had no
education, never cracked a book in his life, and could barely read. But, like most men, he
had everything figured out. He was totally dysfunctional. He had five wives and beat all
of them. He never murdered one, that I know of, but he got rich five times, and lost it
all methodically. The wives would take it all.
The factor of my brother being sodomized made him think there was something wrong with
him. This is a common reaction in persons who have had sex of an unusual nature. The sex
act itself is harmless. Almost no one ever gets hurt by being sodomized. Physically,
perhaps. Some are penetrated by someone who is too big for them, or no lubricant is used.
This causes pain. But no permanent physical harm.
The participant often thinks he has been mentally damaged, or
emotionally. This is not true. There is no such thing as mental damage.However the passive
partner thinks he has been damaged and is called a victim by his
parents and various social agencies including, and especially the police, who use this
ploy to get the victim to testify against
the other participant. The police used this technique for decades to put homosexuals into
prison, even thought homosexuality was not a crime. So the partner thinks, I am a
victim. This means I am a patient. I am sick, so everybody must be nice
to me. And I am getting a lot of attention. Being in this state of mind carries many
rewards for the victim so he masters the art of remaining a victim. So he
tells himself he has been injured, hurt, harmed, impaired, etc., and begins brooding over
his sad state. In short, he feels sorry for himself. He broods, and broods, and broods.
Sometimes for years. Sometimes for decades. Carrying this baggage enables the
partner to commit all kinds of criminal acts. Well, I was sodomize when I was a kid,
I have every right to steal money. I was mistreated, so I will mistreat others. Or,
I have a right to beat my wife because I was mistreated when I was a boy.
All this from a simple sex act.
The truth is, the sex act did no harm. Millions of boys, youths, etc., have been
sodomized. One expert put the figure at almost 90% of all boys have been sodomized at one
time or another. It does no permanent damage. It is not the sex act that does the harm, it
is the screwed up thinking of the participant. Aided and abetted, of course, by ignorant
parents, social workers, therapists and police detectives. Things that
happened to you in your past do not hurt you; how you think about them is what does the
damage.
My brother was a father figure to me, and I worshiped him. So, when he accused me of being homosexual, I took it literally. My brother knows everything, so I must be queer. I was a very scrawny youth, so I thought my skinny build proved I was homosexual.
But I didnt want to be homosexual, so I began a study that lasted sixty years studying and researching the subject. My final conclusion was that I was neither homosexual, nor crazy. Oh, yes, like any kid, I thought any kid who was queer, was also crazy.
So, for sixty years I studied homosexuality, psychiatry, and general semantics, in addition philosophy, psychology, and religion, including yoga and hundreds of other subjects too numerous to list here. I became an expert without a degree. I also studied creative writing, and have been a published writer for more years than I care to remember, including numerous books.
One day I realized I was still studying and learning, preparing for the future. And I said to myself, the future is here. I am an old man, I no longer have a future. Its time to stop studying and start doing.
Thus this website.
If I help someone, fine. If not, I have at least made the effort. I am casting my pearls before you. Do with them as you choose.
-Harley Sanders