sydneyboy

Beautifully written. You are obviously a very fine human being.

This is an attitude that is mercifully very rare on this forum. Civility and courtesy and respect for other opinions are usually the order of the day.

I think I am being realistic. I have the greatest sympathy for Brall who comes across as an honest decent man who was genuinely trying to help people who he believed were in need. The original advice he received about leaving love in the saunas is well taken. A friend of mine met a boy in one of the saunas a few years ago and agreed to meet him for a ''date'' the next day. The boy turned up at his hotel and my friend saw a different side to him. Firstly he indulged liberally in the alcohol in the mini bar then when they left the hotel this boy's idea of a ''date'' was to go on a shopping spree with my friend's credit card. My friend realised what he had got himself into, took his leave and hurried back to his hotel decidedly wiser. This is one example of ''the experience these boys have to offer.''

I too have read countless stories on the internet and personal stories from acquaintances who go to countries like Brazil, Morocco, Thailand, the Philippines etc looking for "love'' or thinking the boys actually care about them. The harsh reality is that we want sex and the boys in saunas, go go bars etc want money, and as much as they can get. I have a friend who has 4 university degrees (including a PhD) who met a boy in Morocco about 15 years ago. He has paid for his education, health, rent and ad hoc amounts for every conceivable reason. Along with all his local friends I am gobsmacked at his gullibility. The individual known as Trilingual who set up the Gay Travel Brazil website I have read on BoyToy came to grief after marrying his Brazilian boyfriend and if these reports are to be believed is virtually destitute. At least one story I read on the now very quiet Cruising for Sex site some years ago was very amusing. This American met a go go boy in Pattaya, Thailand. The boy invited him to the family home in the countryside. On arrival mother announced that her refrigerator had broken down and it would cost the equivalent of a couple of hundred dollars to replace it and would he oblige. He agreed. The boy told him he would write his name in texta on the side of the refrigerator to remind him of their ''love''. He found himself alone in the house and discovered the name of a foreigner on the side of the stove, microwave, TV and every other electrical appliance and stick of furniture in the house. I sent him a PM telling I found the story delightful and he had made my day. He replied back assuring me it was true. I replied back telling him I didn't doubt it for a moment. I have been to Thailand about a dozen times and that story was pure unadulterated Thai. I must confess to being rather cynical about ''love'' but on balance I think it is better to be cynical than conned, or worse have your heart broken.

On ocean cruises: “Jail with the option of drowning.” -Sir Billy Connolly

This went under my radar. Mirella Freni died in early February. One of the great sopranos of the 20th century.

On cricket (sources unknown): “Why did God invent cricket? To prove there was eternity.” “Baseball played by people on Valium.”

“I have been rich and I have been poor. Believe me baby, being rich is better!” -Ella Fitzgerald

“I like living in one room, I’ve never known what people do with the room their not in.” - Quentin Crisp

“Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper.” -Quentin Crisp

You might be right I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day and he gave me that one. Still funny.

I saw Werther in Sydney with Michael Fabiano the year before last. Sensational.

Mae West showed a friend a newly acquired diamond bracelet. The friends’ response was “Goodness.” To which May replied “what do you mean goodness. Goodness has got nothing to do with it!”

“You only live once, but if you do it right once is enough.” -Mae West

Very good. I’ll acknowledge style any day.

I have made this point a number of times on this thread.

On the music of Richard Wagner: “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” -Mark Twain I don’t agree with him but this is still funny.

Referring to money: “If I can’t take it with me I’m not going.” -Ella Fitzgerald “

Don’t take it too seriously.

I respectfully disagree. It is an interesting and throughly worthwhile topic to discuss. The fact that there is a wide range of opinions is interesting in itself.

I agree that straight men may be raised by single women. A personal friend of mine found out her new husband was a philanderer while pregnant with his child. That was the end of the marriage and she raised her son alone. She is a highly intelligent woman who raised her son with full awareness of the circumstances in which they were in. He did well at a local state school, a prefect, tertiary educated, although only about 24 has achieved good things in the world of work and is straight with a nice little girlfriend etc. My point is that a male child raised by a single woman has a much greater chance of being gay but it is not necessarily the case depending upon the woman concerned.

There is another thread running on this forum where psychoanalytic explanations are offered to resolve an area of conflict. Could this be another one?

I think there is a deep seated psychoanalytic explanation as to why you want this thread terminated.?

A former next door neighbour of mine was a gay solicitor and an intelligent man. Over a few glasses of wine one night the issue of gay causation arose. I gave him my psychoanalytic explanation which he not have a bar of. He claimed it was “learnt” behaviour. Over the preceding years he had told me of his own family history. His mother, a single woman, conceived him at the age of about 45 as the result of a one night stand. He was raised by this middle aged single woman with no male figure in his formative years. Pure unadulterated Freud. None but the blind shall see.

I have got to be extremely careful here because as I said in my post I do not want this discussion to be unseemly and over the years I have encountered people who have strong views on the issue of causation. This article is described as “scientific “ but when it comes to explaining matters of the mind one has to be careful about what is “science “ and scientists disagree. There was a very well known Sydney psychiatrist Professor Nathaniel McConaghy (now deceased) who was an early and enthusiastic practitioner of aversion therapy. I read one article he wrote years ago in which, on the question of causes, believed homosexuality was the result of a vitamin deficiency while the foetus was still in its mother’s womb. This was by no means his most bizarre theory/practice. One thing I have observed over the years is that some gay people have a blind spot when it comes to accepting that their sexuality is the result of familial circumstances. I do not.