I just could not see the problem

This report comes from the research of Dr. Frits Bernard. Dr. Bernard cites it as one of six examples of ‘characteristic’ biographies on the impact of boy-man relationships.
[Case 1](/en/reports/1960s/en-fb-case-1/), [Case 2](/en/reports/1960s/en-fb-case-2/), [Case 3](/en/reports/1960s/en-fb-case-3/), [Case 4](/en/reports/1950s/en-fb-case-4/), [Case 5](/en/reports/1910s/en-fb-case-5/), Case 6 (this)

Source: PAN Vol. 1, Nr. 3, 1979

When I was about eight years old I got to know a man in the street who thought I played very nicely. He invited me out for a bicycle ride, and later to visit his home. Although my parents had warned me not to do this I just could not see the problem they were talking about. I could not imagine that this gentleman would harm me… Gradually we got to know each other… and I came to realise that he was homosexual. This did not shock me; I just wanted to know more about it. He told me about sex, bisexuality and heterosexuality, subjects which were quite beyond my parents. From him I received love, which actually I had never known (not, I mean, in the way I know it at present from my wife). But our friendship was, and still is, one that I could imagine with no one else. Later, when I was ten or eleven, we had sex with each other, something I always enjoyed. That lasted until I was eighteen, when I started going steady with a girl. When I became engaged I was able to tell my future wife with an easy mind about my youthful experiences. She could appreciate the whole thing very well. We were very sure of each other and were married in 1968 and have, at the moment, an especially good marriage, an especially fine sexual relationship and an especially dear little daughter of 10 months.