Anthony Rapp, a notable actor, recently came forward and claimed Kevin Spacey, another notable actor, sexually coerced him at the age of 14 when Spacey was 26. Unfortunately, Spacey sidestepped the allegation by seizing the moment to come out of the closet. This in turn has caused people to raise forth a long-standing judgment and stereotype that all homosexuals are nothing more than pedophiles and child molesters.
But for those who might not know, this assumption isn’t based upon any factual or statistical evidence. Ironically, I found it to be just the opposite through a little research I made on the Internet. In one specific study in fact, I discovered that 95 percent of convicted offenders labeled themselves as heterosexual, with the majority of them also being married. Yet somehow gay men get labeled far too often as pedophiles or child molesters anyway.
This ultimately is disheartening and one of the very reasons why I continue to struggle identifying myself openly as gay, even though I’ve accepted it’s who I was some two decades ago. And personally, having been molested by a heterosexual man myself when I was 12 years old, it sickens me with the thought of ever bringing harm like that to a child or teenager, or anyone for that matter really.
I spent much of my early adulthood going through hours of counseling to work through being molested and have now pledged to speak openly in my life about what I went through, to hopefully bring healing to those who too were molested, but never found that themselves. Because of this work, especially in the past year, I’ve met a few other gay men that were molested even more viciously during their childhood than I ever was. In their cases, the offenders were heterosexual and married men as well and they too are disgusted at the thought of ever bringing harm like that to any type of child.
But somehow, we as gay men continue to be labeled by far too many people as pedophiles or molesters of children, when indeed the majority of us would never, ever, do such a thing, and are horrified by the very thought of it.
And just so know, in my case, I’m rarely attracted to anyone younger than I, or even close to my age for that matter. As far back as I can remember, even in my own pre-pubescent years and before I was ever molested, I was constantly admiring men far older than I, which is the very thing my molester preyed upon when he saw me doing just that from a distance, long before I even knew what I was doing or knew what having an attraction even meant.
Nevertheless, because of Spacey’s comments about being gay arriving at the very moment he was accused of being a pedophile and child molester, it now pours a ton more fuel onto a fire that has been stoking for years by far too many racist people. And that is why I will continue to have to deal with this issue in my world, even though it’s something that isn’t true, not for me, and not for the majority of those who are gay either.
So, while I am extremely saddened at the thought of what happened to Anthony Rapp during his youth, I am just as dismayed at how someone I’ve often admired because of his acting skillset has now caused me and plenty of others even greater hardship, as we continue to battle the demons of prejudice, stereotypes, and judgments that unfortunately still exist against gay people in this world, and will keep on existing the more things like this happen.
Yet I have hope that one day, people will finally realize that not only are pedophiles and child molesters mostly heterosexual individuals who are very sick and needing treatment, but that homosexuals aren’t an evil on this planet that need to be purged and indeed are a part of God, just like I believe every single one of us are, no matter what our sexuality is…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
