I once invited a non-bl friend to come to a bl chatroom I hung out in back in those days. He left fairly quickly, enraged. The bizarre thing was that nothing remotely sexual had come up at all in the chatroom. After discussing it with him I realized that what enraged him was not what was actually said but what he misinterpreted from the innocuous non-sexual conversation that was going on. His prejudices had so colored his perception that he turned casual non-sexual conversation into a conversation about sexual abuse. That's when I first realized how powerful our prejudices can be.

As you read stories about us from people with no clue, you will see that same pattern cropping up. A nice day spent at the park with a YF turns into a grooming session in their eyes. A discussion about the morality of BL/YF relationships turns into an attempt to legitimize the evil behaviour we partake in. A mention of a cute boy we saw turns into an admission of stalking. We really can't win because their preconceived notions of what we are will make them take whatever we say and force it to fit into the mold of what they think people like us say.

Why do people like Jack McClellan wind up being the ones who try to represent us? Because those of us who are successful, intelligent, and have our lives in order are far too busy actually spending time with our YF, working, and doing other worthwhile things to have any time left over for pointless activism.*

*I don't believe all activism is pointless. But the kind McClellan did obviously is.