The roller coaster ride of human sexuality...

I thanked Chris in the Couv for pointing out the fact on Slog, that the nature of gay teens and how they react to their sexual natures is an important component to the Stancl case. He was referring mainly to Stancl and his sexuality, but I think the nature of the victim's sexualities could well be a major component of this case as well.It's not something people want to think about and I'm NOT, in any way suggesting that victims in sex crime cases "ask for it" or if they enjoy it, it didn't really happen, or any of that bullshit but I am going to go out on a limb here and say that in some cases and some situations, what appears to be the truth, may not be the truth and when a case involves gay issues, it can be even more complicated especially when it involves young adults.

I think part of the problem is, no one has bothered to really think about, HOW this happened; what was the process from start to finish and what seems logical and likely. Think about it: Stancl poses as a cute teen girl on Facebook (we'll call her Lucy)and makes tons of friends and starts flirting with the boys and emailing them and lures them in and at some point asks for naked pictures, and GETS quite a few, then apparently introduces a theme of "her" having a gay male friend and then the possibility of some sort of sex event involving all the parties involved. Well, obviously the majority of the boys who've been flirting with "Her" are going to drop out of this conversation, in disgust, and they do, but not all the boys appear to be that disgusted...

At least 7 of the boys don't back away, they keep going even though the element of homosexuality has been introduced. Does this mean they are gay? No, but it does mean that there might be some curiousity there, however small or otherwise why would they proceed? And, why would a blackmail threat from Lucy at this point mean anything? More than likely, "Lucy" has sent the boys a naughty picture of her, and since nothing "gay" has taken place "she" really can't hold THAT over their heads as a form of blackmail can she? So, we don't know exactly how Lucy/Stancl worded things but at some point, they have to agree to meet in person; we don't know how this came about but it had to be somewhat gradual because at some point Stancl had to make the reveal, "oh, there is no Lucy the Slut; I made her up!" This would seem to give the boys an out; "Fuck you man, I'm out of here!" but it doesn't seem to happen. And we don't know exactly what happens next, but somehow Stancl is able to convince them to do something sexual. We don't know how long it took or how harrassing it was, or how intimidating or how abusive, or not abusive it was, but it happens...and according to some of the reports, at least some of the encounters take place in the school bathroom, which seems a bit odd.. But how difficult was it? Why did the boys give in? Why didn't they go to teachers or parents or cops? Was Stancl, a peer who was their age or two or three or four years older, (and in at least one case, Stancl was apparently younger) have enough authority and power to control them? In most other similar situations, it's usually a much older authority figure OUT of their peer group that is able to manipulate and control their victims...how did Stancl pull this off?

Now I know this goes against prevailing wisdom. I think the majority prefer to think of this as a pornographic melodrama: an evil pedophilic villain twirling his moustache, luring young boys into the bathroom and blackmailing them into blowjobs, but it can't be that simple can it? These events didn't happen over night; there had to be some sort of gradual reveal. They apparently occurred over a series of months, if not years. Also, I'm not trying to excuse what happened, but it doesn't seem like it could be quite as cut and dried as it might appear. And I'm not impugning these boys or their reputation but there is some strong evidence that there had to be some degree of same sex interest on their part. It would seem to be it's either that or they were very emotionally immature for their age and easy to manipulate. Again, we don't know.

But I know what some of you are going to say; Stancl forced them and threatened them!
Perhaps, but since when do teenagers respect or bow to the will of other teenagers? Physically, smaller, weaker kids are always scared of the bigger, stronger and meaner but we haven't had any evidence of this. And threats of blackmail can't be ignored, but even the majority of frightened, immature, not very rationale thinking kids are going to be smart enough to say to a peer threatening to expose their naked pictures to the world, "uh, yeah, Tony and if you do everyone's going to know you're a big fag plus you're passing around naked images of minors which is against the law and you'll go to jail..."

But now it's come to light that one of the kids, did eventually go the police/his parents, though it seems unclear if this was BEFORE or AFTER the accusations against Stancl who was discovered after he made his moronic bomb threat against the school. Did the kid come forward because he felt he had to, to expose the crime committed against him, or did the kid come forward because he was scared of being labeled a fag? It's happened many, many, many times before. Young guy, (or not so young, for that matter) has gay sex for the first time and either his parents or his friends or some authority figures find out, OR, he has second thoughts about the whole incident and wants to come "clean" to relieve his conscience...Yeah, that happens a lot. I don't think most heterosexuals realize how traumatic the coming out process is for the majority of gay men and women. We've been programmed since birth about the evils of same-sex love; even modern kids who've been raised in liberal homes have issues with this. We're surrounded by images and words that tell us either our sexuality is bad, or at the very least MANY people think it is bad. So, the first time we have a same-sex is very emotional. It can be a joyous experience and an erotic experience but it can also be very troubling when you've realized that you've become a sexual outlaw. I don't know if this happened with one, or two or all of those 7 kids who had sex with Anthony Stancl, but I certainly think it's a possibility. And regardless if Stancl was a monster who abused his peers, or just a twisted little shit playing mind games, or a misunderstood gay teen using creative ways to get laid, he at the very least should have on his conscience that he might have fucked up these 7 guys, regardless of their sexuality, and complicated their lives and damaged the process of young humans coming to terms with their own sexual identities.