New York Times: On Queer Childhood
I mentor boys at-risk for HIV. Many of them do sex work. They don’t carry the baggage of typical adolescents. Their baggage is a lot more breath-taking. People see delinquency, the juvenile justice system, and detention. None of which work. That people do not understand homelessness, hunger, and hate, is not news. For boys at the bottom of the patriarchal hierarchy, homelessness, hunger, and hate, are the status quo. Sexuality is a remora.
So is school failure, addiction, and being kicked out of the house. I am suggesting the culture does not work for them. I am suggesting that white, middle-class America is out of reach for them. I am suggesting that prison is their future. I am suggesting that sexuality is something so convoluted for them, fate unfolds in self-defeating, and scheduled ways.
The cartoon character, Big Mouth, on Netflix will not be infected with HIV. He would be too informed. Much of the information the boys I deal with comes from what they refer to as “tricks.” Turning tricks is how they survive a capitalism that makes no place for childhood. Their childhood is prostitution. Violence is a pressing issue. Their tricks are your husbands, brothers, friends, fathers, and anyone else whose sexuality lives in the shadows.
The gay community is afraid of them. So few are reached. Public health treats them with contempt. Education kicks them out. Family is hardly sacred in this milieux. Religion condemns them. AIDS is not over. Not for them. Many commit suicide. It is easy to lose all hope.