Two choices

If we accept you're not bad, then you must accept that you're mad. Not that great a bargain, in my opinion. A friend kindly sent me a link to this article, and while I have to admit that it's rather more empathetic than most written on the subject, I was disappointed that there was such a focus on the 'treatment' of a 'mental illness'. Why can't people accept that those like me, attracted to boys (or, by the same token, my counterparts attracted to girls) aren't necessarily either inherently bad or mentally ill. We're just people who, through some unfathomable permutation of nature and nurture, have to contend with desires that the vast majority of the world at large consider unconscionable. It isn't, certainly in my case, and I suspect in most, any sort of a choice, and it isn't something I can voluntarily change, because if I could, I most assuredly would. As the article suggested, there is mental illness, and there is suicide, but I believe that much of it comes from without rather than within, born of the relentless tide of hatred we face, the endless chorus accusing us of monstrosity and worthlessness. If you hear these things repeated day after day, year after year, from the likes of the pundit quoted in the article, the desire for us to be completely isolated from society, if not killed out of hand, it's pretty hard sometimes not to believe the propaganda. When even those who try to understand and search for solutions are subjected to hate mail, the chances of anything changing in any foreseeable future seem very remote indeed. And, as a result, those who are attracted to minors have no option but to hide, until, in some cases, the loneliness and frustration overwhelms the dams of self-control, and a child is hurt, or worse. The haters, often, have blood on their hands, in my opinion.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B