Why change the name? We'd only just got used to their being around under their old label.

We must be thankful for small mercies.

The way people link pedophiles and homosexuals makes me itch. Being vehemently against adults who sexually prey on children is very, very different from being against two people of the same sex loving each other.

Ah, I see where he got that perception: from your assertion that schools which turn a blind eye to bigger boys raping smaller boys could foster pedophiles. The thing is, you make a good point. I guess he did not realize you were talking about rape and thought you were talking about boys genuinely loving one another. That kind of social structure would normalize the idea that if you are bigger, you can exert power over a smaller boy by raping him...which is exactly what pedophiles do.

I think he has an impossibly romantic view of what goes on in English public schools.

You've understood what it was I was trying to say. I wonder why he couldn't?

Some people can't see beyond their own narrow view of the world. I see that wlotus explained the reasoning behind the homophobe charge...which seems like a willful misunderstanding on wemyss' part.

I don't think Wemyss read that post with due care and attention, but then he was already angry with me.

Several years ago, I was un-Friended by a IRL friend of many years because I said that I was going to "fight for my right to live in sin." By this I meant that I was going to fight for marriage equality even though my partner has said that she doesn't want to get married. This woman went BALLISTIC over this comment because she thought I was against same-sex marriage, un-Friended me, and hasn't spoken to me since.

I can kind of see why they might have taken your public-school comment wrong. I had to read it a couple of times before I figured out what you meant. But it seems like this person has something else going on that doesn't have anything to do with you.

I think you're right. Wemyss has wilfully misread what I wrote for reasons of his own. I can only guess what they might be. I have no idea what sort of person hides behind the cartoonishly blimpish on-line persona.

Exactly.

I think the post that he is upset about is the one where you appeared to equate bullying behavior with pedophilia and/or homosexuality. Bullying, pedophilia and homosexuality are all completely different things, and even though all things CAN exist within one person, they do not have to. It is quite possible to have a bully that is neither pedophile or homosexual, and this is true of all three.

Having said that, in my opinion, he greatly over reacted. He could have just said what I just said, and continued the conversation.

I was writing about the reality of life in English single sex boarding schools, where- in my days anyway- it was normal for bigger boys to take younger boys as their catamites. I wasn't trying to make any general point about homosexuality or paedophilia, merely suggesting that the public school system provides a kind of training ground for child abusers.

I don't know this wemyss person from a can of paint. But anybody who's read Stalky & Co. knows a thing or two about fags, bullying, etc.

Wemyss writes Harry Potter fan-fic. I think he gets his ideas about English public school life from Rowling not Kipling.

Glancing at his post I can't honestly say he's a great loss!

No. He's a pompous ass.

Thank goodness that not every gay person considers us homophobes when we express disgust about child sexual abuse and demand that something be done about known abusers. I certainly hope that none of my gay friends would expect me to not loathe "baby diddlers"! I hope that they too would loathe these nasty creatures, regardless of their sexual orientation, and regardless of whether the victims were boys or girls.

Paedophilia is clearly something distinct from homosexuality and heterosexuality.

What is the connection?

Still love you, n'all, but I can see you riding the same hobbyhorse that crushed poor Oscar Wilde, updated perhaps to reflect how a modern Englishman wishes to see himself but still essentially the same. It isn't homophobia so much as the iron law of English propriety, ironically the very thing that will prevent justice being served in the Savile case.

Between homosexuality and paedophilia? There isn't one.

Some paedophiles fancy little girls, some fancy little boys, some (like Savile) fancy both.

I wasn't drawing any kind of connection. That was something Wemyss did.

I have a long history with the Blessed Oscar. It rankles with me how he's been turned into a gay saint. I admire some aspects of the man and deplore others. He was full of ego and self-pity and treated his wife badly. His writing can be witty and succinct but also florid and sentimental. It's an instinct with me to want to throw cabbages and tomatoes at any person that gets put up on a pedestal.

Oh yes, I remember him all right.

Point one, fair enough; point two, raw nerve somewhere you have managed to hit inadvertently I suspect.