Have all gay men turned into idiots?

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Had a very strange on-line conversation today with a young guy. A simple "wink" from me on a site (which is in fact a totally non-desrcript, ambiguous, but nonetheless positive acknowledgment of someone) lead to the oddest conversation, where he somehow assumed that what was in fact the expression of my appreciation for the aesthetic of his photo somehow translated into me wanting to sleep with him. Except he was trolling for prospects for his "man" (whatever that meant)... but that's another story... sort of...

How odd that we seem to have gotten to this point in gaydom where a compliment is tantamount to an invitation to coitus. Or maybe it's just an age thing. Did he perhaps at 25 think that I was, at 44, somehow preying on him? But wait... it's the internet. It's not like i was copping a feel in a dark seedy theatre. And he initiated the response to me. And he was looking for a sex partner for his mid-thirties "man"... because it was "hot". And at the end of it all, had the nerve to tell me I was out-of-line and that I should stay in my own league. Gosh!

Well, at least this pretty-but-stupid young thing is, in my experience, not representative of the world at large. But he is perhaps a caricature of behaviour that is not uncommon. I recall in my younger years being suspicious of older gay men, thinking that they all wanted to jump me. But fortunately I realised that (a) that was not always the case (yes, some of them did want to jump me), and (b) it was me that had control in the end over who got to jump me and who didn't. And once i figured that out, well, not only was the world less threatening, but also I could be more gracious. And grace is sorely lacking in young gay men. Young straight men are far better at it.

So smarten up, boys. Because here's the kicker. We will all grow older. And while you may think it's cute to be catty now, it will come back to haunt you. You will not always be so pretty. And then you will wish for a bit of grace coming from others.