The other day, I got an e-mail from a man in Argentina, a country in which I have lived and worked. I fell in love with Buenos Aires the first moment I stepped into it. It is one of the great cosmopolitan cities of the world. I would come to know the capital and the country intimately, from the posh seaside gambling resort at Mar del Plata to the Alpine lakes and ski slopes of Bariloche in the Andes.

Life for gay men in Argentina was repressive in my day, with the Secret Police patrolling the streets in plain clothes to entrap and persecute anyone who stared too long at another man. A friend of mine was arrested in this way and was never heard from again.

They are charming, the Argentinians. The e-mail I got the other day proves it. He wrote it in English: "I want...to congratulate for your site. There are plenty nuded men over there in the net...but for us...people who loves older men, there are very few. (I guess i am not original if i say that men are like the wines...the time gets them better)."

He made points with me for a couple of reasons. What aging man does not like to hear that he is not just getting older, but better? Not an old fart, but a silverfox! Another reason he scored high was his support for my belief that those silverfoxes who can in clear conscience do so, should be proud to contribute photographs of their bodies for the enjoyment and pleasure it gives to the other men who love them for their maturity of shape and character.

To most people, the pictorial of Big Ben Boxer parading around buck naked in Death Valley ("Death Valley Daze" in the Clubhouse Locker Rooms) is either a disgusting or a hysterically funny sight. I know what people think about it. They give it to me first hand. In my position, folks, I am connected to the world.

But to a minority, that sight is an invitation to sexual fantasy, to escape from a tired or unfulfilled reality in a harsh world that in too many places wishes them dead and makes, or supports, that wish come true. Laugh if you will, but I feel that I am performing an essential social service here at the Clubhouse by taking off my clothes and prancing around. Otherwise, I would not do it.

[ Part 1 | Part 2 ]