I agree with your point that there are things we allow our kids to do that carries some measure of risk. Many of those things can easily be lived without. So you're right. It brings us right back to the issue of how great is the risk for harm in man/boy sex. Obviously, I believe the risk is very high. But I don't have statistics or data that would prove this. However, there are people much smarter than I that do. You can dispute their conclusions, or the studies themselves, but you can't dispute that they're out there. I think you would agree that the people who believe man/boy sex to be harmfull FAR outnumbers those who don't. Since all you have are a few examples of men being sexual with their YFs that you THINK is unharmful (check back with the boys once their adults and ask again) what makes you so sure you are right and the vast majority are wrong? And I bring up once again the fact that the incidents of kids being harmed vastly outnumber the incidents where it wasn't harmful. I find it hard to believe that more non-harmful experiences wouldn't be posted on the internet if they did indeed exist. It could be done anonymously.

I'm not one to just follow the crowd or believe something just because the majority believe it. However, I don't discount the general consensus as meaningless, especially when it concerns the well being of someone other than myself.

I don't condemn anyone that believes differently than I. However, I WILL condemn anyone who is sexual with a boy. I won't condemn him personally, but I will condemn the action. If he is a friend, I won't "unfriend" him. And I will support him as best I can if he gets caught. But I won't be inviting him and his YF over for any sleepovers.

You're right that I AM very quick to condemn the ACT of man/boy sex. But it isn't just because it goes against my views or beliefs. I have no problem at all accepting other points of view, regardless of how much I disagree with them. If I were only accepting of others who believed exactly as I do, I would be a very lonely man indeed. The reason I condemn the act of man/boy sex, admittedly without much in the way of indisputable evidence, is this. Picture this scenario. An adult is aware that the vast majority of people believe that man/boy sex is harmful to the boy. He is aware that most think it's so harmful that they have enacted very severe penalties for engaing in it. He is also aware that there have been studies done that concludes that man/boy sex is harmful to the boy in many, if not most cases. He's read many stories in newspapers, magazines, and the internet, as well as watching stories on TV that show examples of how much it has messed up a lot of kids. Sometimes it was just the sex that messed them up, while other times it was the hell they had to go thru after it was discovered that added to their trauma. He's read the accounts from the experts as well as the parents and the boys themselves denouncing man/boy sex. He also knows that as a general rule, most boys do not have the same decision making abilities as an adult, which is why they need adults to guide them. But in spite of all that, he says to himself "I'm going to have sex with my YF anyway because I love him and I don't believe any of that." And you wonder why I'm so quick to condemn?

Thanks for the reply Blackstone. As I said to Cat, my other post was so long I wasn't sure if anyone would even bother to read it all. I don't have a problem with you believing differently than I on this matter. I don't have a problem with the "belief" at all. I DO have a serious problem with acting on that belief, in other words, being sexual with a boy. If that makes me intolerant in your eyes, so be it.

Dakota