life post gogo bars...

[Oliver2]

It's easy to see the downside of relationships like the one Daveuk describes, particularly the cost and the fear that you are being taken for a ride....a view sometimes expressed here on this site. But there are positives which go beyond the usual ones of sex and companionship.

Like others, I've reached the stage in my life when I'm losing friends and family and my social circle is becoming smaller by the year.. Gay men don't usually have children and grandchildren to care for them; our relationships fulfil that role. And with the ravages of time, it means that a younger guy can provide a complex combination of friendship, companionship lover, and a quasi father/son function.

It brings worry of course; anxieties about health, about employment prospects, about family....and I've experienced all these. Bit then I console myself by accepting that such things are a consequence of love. To have someone to worry about becomes a blessing.