A local California city councilman is in the local papers for using an online dating site to meet men (and, egads, possibly even sleep with them). I think two things are going on. First, a wee bit of homophobia (it's so salacious that it's about gay sex!), and second, Internet-phobia (it's so salacious that people date online!). What the paper doesn't understand, and what I wrote about at length over at AMERICAblog Gay, is that there's a reason gays were early adopters to online dating - it's called survival:
Imagine what it's like being a gay man and wanting to make a pass at a cute guy at the office, at the bus stop, at church. I'd be damn careful about doing any of those unless I knew, or strongly suspected, the other guy was gay. Straight guys don't have that problem, worrying about getting the sh*t kicked out of them if they make a friendly pass at a woman who happens to be a lesbian.
There's a reason gay people were early adopters of online dating. Other than a few bars (and the Whole Foods), there's nowhere else we can safely assume the other person is actually gay. And I mean safely.
