A Sad Reminder Of Where This Leads

A Sad Reminder Of Where This Leads

I've mentioned before that there is a surprising amount of evidence that shows a strong correlation between child sexual abuse and adult homosexuality--and there should be no great surprise that one might cause the other. (The same is true with respect to child sexual abuse and adult substance abuse.) There are a surprisingly large number of homosexuals who acknowledge that they were sexually abused (such as Ellen Degeneres, and Anne Heche)--but insist that there's no connection between the two. In the aftermath of the intellectual/artsy sorts defending Roman Polanski's drugging and raping of a 13 year old, there's a sad column by the author Robert Goolrick reminding us of where sexual abuse takes a child:

Let me tell you a few things about the rape of a child. It happened to me. I was raped by my drunken father at the age of four, before the drunken eyes of my mother, so I know what I’m talking about.

It hurts like holy hell. The next time you see a grown man walking down the street with his four-year-old son or daughter, just observe the sheer difference in the size between the two people.

And, more importantly, it is the absolute, final, and total end of childhood, of any sense of innocence and wonder. Perhaps the girl in California had already lost hers. Perhaps her mother manipulated the situation. I, frankly, don’t give a good goddamn.

That girl is forever defined by that moment, as I have been defined by my own moment of terror and pain and horror. There is, for me, no place on this whole planet that is safe. I move farther and farther from the center of things. I find myself in hotel rooms or houses in remote places where nobody knows where I am, and very few even care.

I have been an alcoholic, a drug user, a sexual deviant and addict. I have tried with what heart I have left to be kind and generous and loving, and I have wrecked my life and hurt people I love. I have tried to be whole, to be a regular man inside a regular man’s skin, and I have failed miserably. [emphasis added]

I don't know exactly what kind of sexual deviant Goolrick was. I notice that a lot of his books seem to come up tagged as "gay literature." Is there any great surprise that early child sexual abuse might cause some sexual confusion as an adult? And yet looking directly at this question is something that just isn't going to happen, is it?

Making excuses for molesters like Polanski is the sign of the utter moral depravity of the entertainment industry.