Well, Barbara Walters is coming out of retirement to do an interview with Mary Kay LeTourneau, the teacher who had a long standing affair with her 12 year old student.

What bugs me about this is the way this has brought out our perceptions of child sexual abuse victims who happen to be male. Throughout this whole ordeal, LeTourneau has been portrayed as a sympathetic figure because the student wanted the affair.

The press' treatment of LeTourneau is wrong.

As a man who was a childhood victim of sexual abuse, I have found an appalling double standard in this area. I cannot even speak out in this area, for fear of being wrongly labelled as having latent homosexual tendencies, the sort of "blame the victim" mentality that female rape victims once had to routinely endure and even to this day still too often endure. Domestic violence shelters likewise provide housing for women, but all too often lack equal facilities for men. And homeless FATHERS with children have no place to go; homeless shelters provide accomodations for women with children and for men; NOT for men with children. 

The thing that frightens me about the whole thing is the potential slippery slope it puts us on. If LeTourneau's actions are deemed acceptable, how long is it until we start condoning the actions of a male pedophile towards a 12 year old female? Or a pederast priest?

Don't get me wrong; LeTourneau has done her time, and, as such, has every right to pursue a relationship with her victim, who is now an adult. But we cannot, we MUST not, condone her actions from 9 years ago as acceptable.