[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

It has never made sense to me,

1) How MR "knew" it was wrong or that he would be "labeled" for something he'd never heard of? He must have heard something in order to create the conflict, unless he is saying that children are born "knowing" something about molestation and homosexuality that also happens to be incorrect.

2) How he blamed himself for decades for something done by someone else?

That therapists say these happen still doesn't explain it.

Also, doesn't his explanation of his problem with being molested, and its being "wrong" because of the abnormality of homosexuality, let heterosexual molestation off the hook since it is based not on something inately against nature but on an arbitrary and variable legal age line?

[Antoninus]

1) How MR "knew" it was wrong or that he would be "labeled" for something he'd never heard of? He must have heard something in order to create the conflict, unless he is saying that children are born "knowing" something about molestation and homosexuality that also happens to be incorrect.

Since he doesn't provide the details, I can't answer that question for him. Honestly, I don't want to know the details. I would say that all people are created with an inborn knowledge of right and wrong (you remember--the Book of Genesis?) I can recall finding a Playboy stashed under some shrubs when I was 9. When I looked at it, I knew it was wrong even though I had no idea what pornography was or why it was wrong to look at it. I'm guessing it's the same principle at work in Mike Reagan's case.

2) How he blamed himself for decades for something done by someone else?

This is not uncommon at all. Rape victims blame themselves all the time. It's apparently a common psychological reaction to a sexual trauma.

Also, doesn't his explanation of his problem with being molested, and its being "wrong" because of the abnormality of homosexuality, let heterosexual molestation off the hook since it is based not on something inately against nature but on an arbitrary and variable legal age line?

Not at all. It's the same as saying that a killer-rapist has committed a worse crime than a gang-killer who murders a rival gangster. Both have committed hideous crimes, but by calling one worse it by no means belittles the other.