One of the front page stories this week was the article "A Gay Jock's Fear'.

In the article it was quoted that Ian Roberts "was friends and roommates in 1996 with Arron Light, a teenage prostitute who police said was allegedly abused by members of a pedophile ring. Arron disappeared shortly before he was to give evidence against alleged members of the ring in 1997. His skeletal remains were found buried in a shallow grave five years later"

Admittedly I know very little about the case.

Am I the only one who would question why a 30 year old man (Roberts age at that time) would be voluntarily sharing a room or apartment with a teenage prostitute?

Even if he was attempting to help the kid out, and get him off the street - something I have not found any mention of in other resources, at the time; surely anybody in this day in age is going to raise more than just an eyebrow at such questionable behaviour.

I help out street kids all the time, I do a hell of a lot of work with them, but I would never invite one into my home - or even let them know where I lived or very much about my personal life.

I have met Roberts, if only very briefly, and found him to be plesant, personable and even likeable.

I am just suprised that over the years no one seems to have questioned why the then 30 year old Roberts was sharing his digs with a teenage prostitute.

I personally don't think his fear should be looked at so much as the unjustifiable homophobia of a uptight society - His fears should be considered in a quite different light. Lets not be quite so quick to sympathise with our sports icons when they have given us real reason to question their judgement (at the very least).

Rob

Roberts gives his side of the story in testimony during the trial of the accused murderer Frederick George Rix.

I've liked Ian for years and I know I personally have made bad decisions with my heart that didn't get checked by my head until a couple of days later, but it is a bit odd that he moved away from a 16 year-old gay boy in Sydney (where the age of consent for male-male is 18) to Queensland (where the age of male-male is 16 (no anal please.)) Maybe he was restraining himself in Sydney and decided to move to Townsville so he could give the kid a little more affection and the kid knew there was no buck in Townsville. It's definitely a sad tale for sure.

Thanks for mentioning this story Rob. It really got me to thinking.

Our society has gotten so sensitive over adults having anything to do with younger teens. I use to speak with younger teens but I find myself pulling away from anyone that appears to be under the age of 18. My fear is what will everyone around me think. Especially since there is so much in the news about sexual predators right now. Dateline is doing a great job at exposing this underworld but in the same breath creating a huge fear for adults having any connection to a teen whatsoever. It would only take one teen accusing you of touching them to have you arrested. You would be guilty until proven innocent. If you are guilty you should be charged and go to jail but if you are innocent how will you ever get your good name back?

At my local grocery store the baggers are young teen boys and they strike up a conversation with me all the time. Their store policy is to have the bagger help you out with your groceries. I have often told the baggers no thanks for the help because I didn't want there to be anything (made up) about me being inappropriate with them. Have any of you had the same feelings about this?

Are you setting yourself up to have a teen accuse you of something you didn't do so they can extort money from you? What will happen to the Big Brother's and Big Sister's programs if this starts to happen? What are your thoughts?

My brother is a high school teacher and he has often told me he refuses to be in a room alone with a student. He is quite upfront with his classes. He tells then he will give them all the help they need but will never be in a room alone with them, to protect both himself and them. Even in the gym he has said if they fall there will have to be other students or a teacher around before he will administer aid. I thought he was a bit extreme but he could name several cases of teachers being accused of interference with students only to have it turn out to be a prank or revenge for bad grades and even after being cleared there always remained a cloud over the teachers career. Is a sad sad world we live in. Luckily I never come into contact with kids at work and rarely outside of work. In this current climate I think this is one more situation that gay men have to be aware of.

How true.

I teach both adult & high school students. And yes, I'm cautious w/ my adult students in terms of being alone w/ them, but even moreso w/ my high school kids most of which are minors. Also, even touching a student can be deemed inappropriate, ie a pat on the back or a touch on the shoulder for "doing a good job." At one time teachers were encouraged to affirm a students progress in such a way--not so today. And yes, it's a sad sad world we live in. In this case I would have to say that it's truly being pc run amok!

Friend of mine teaches voice to a lot of young people, and it can be a more demonstrative process than one might think: showing just where the sound has to come from and how to emote and not just hit the right notes. He is constantly self-aware when working with teens, many of whom are gay or gender-confused and rejected by their parents, leaving him (he is gay and not shy about it) as a role-model and near father figure. I am amazed at the stress he has to put up with to teach.