I completely agree with the last two sentences.

I realize on reading the rest that I wasn't entirely specific about the sex issue in my own response.

I suggested Mason could consider asking his friend if his friend wanted a boyfriend. Not necessarily if he wanted Mason as a boyfriend, though that would be fairly obvious. But I thought the general question might be more diplomatic.

I do not consider homosexual sex to be sinful, but I think that gay relationships should best be handled more or less as if they were impending or actual marriages. I am in Canada, so in principle Mason and his friend could indeed marry here when his friend turns 16. But it does seem a little young, doesn't it? Our MCC and some mainstream churches do a lot of gay marriages, but I am not sure one involving a 16 yo would fly, however legal it might be. (It could still be done civilly even if churches declined).

But the good news is, you can be boyfriends and admit a romantic interest in each other without either having sex or getting married. It's just a matter of good communication. Straight people date in their teen years and gay boys have to have the ability to do the same -- it's normal behaviour and it feels great, and if you decide not to have sex or to make it too too heavy right away, that's fine. At least you know someone is seriously interested in you.

The thing is, sure, you can have extramarital sex and it may seem pretty sweet. But when the holy spirit counsels you, it will be to perfect your love, not to hasten the onset of your sex life. The cruel fact is that most boys of 15 have a lot of learning and changing of their minds to do, and not many dating relationships that form at that time last forever. So you may want to keep the level of intimacy at something suitable for teen dating.

But even dating can be pretty deep on the emotional scale. In the current relationship, the communication gap between Mason and friend might be turning love into sex. Apart from being horny, if his friend does have a crush on him, he may have no other way to broach the topic than through gestures of physical intimacy.

Maybe what he wants the most is to say he is crazy about you.

The alternate scenario, which might be consistent with his reaction to the topic of bisexuality, is that he is a horny straight boy or confused bi boy who is reacting to the intimacy you offer by getting worked up enough to do something that, once it's done, he'll feel bad about. This happens all the time.

So if there was any way to clarify what his romantic interests were, as opposed to his sexual interests, that would be ideal. Another possible question for him is, would he ever date a boy? ("huh? what do you mean?" he asks. "I mean, like, go out on a serious romantic date with a boy, like to a movie and holding hands in the dark, you know, not necessarily leading to sex later of course, but just a normal date")