I'm going to have to disagree with you here Mary Anne.

In Orange County, CA a Catholic Priest has been defrocked for molesting young girls.

To create a divide between the openly gay man and the closet homosexual - and to say one is well adjusted and one is not, takes a great leap on your part.

You are equating the fact of openly addressing sexual preferences with sexual maturity.

What if the openly gay man's preferences include men and young boys?

What if he conceals his preference for young boys and signs up as scout leader to be around them?

It is opportunity that makes someone with perverse sexual preferences act upon them.

I also think your concept of repression needs to be expanded.

I don't know if I agree with you on who I would more trust with my teen-age daughter - a frustrated straight married male or the repressed "mama's boy".

The mama's boy may be excellent at dealing with lifelong repression - and so poses little threat.

The very definition of sexual repression - means to surpress sexual urges.

The married man, just like the openly gay man, who is used to acting on his sexual impulses may find the opportunity of the teen-age daughter, or young boy, too much to pass up.

These pedophile priests - do not suppress their urges! They act on them. They are not classic cases of repression. The really repressed priests are likely not the molestors and in the old days - probably had some "sinful" subscriptions and now have the internet to turn to.

I know several unhappily married guys whom I would not want to give the opportunity for trouble by leaving them for any extended period with a young teen-age girl. Are these guys perverts? No. But knowing their marital state - I would not want to put a hot fudge sundae in front of a man on a diet.

So we might have to compare the term "happily" into the risk equation. Is the openly gay person "happily gay"? Is the married straight person "happily married"?

I think it is very hard to put any fixed parameters on anyone, straight or gay, repressed or actively acting on urges - and classify who poses a threat and who does not.

My personal view is old women might make the best scout masters and priests ;-)

Given their statistical track record - I will take them over the closet homosexual, the openly gay man, or the straight and perhaps frustrated man.

Of course opportunity may suddenly change these statistics...

Best wishes,

SDAI-Tech1