Customer Reviews

For Money or Love: Boy Prostitution in America

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First published in 1976, this book is by a former NBC reporter Robin Lloyd. It is one of the most rational studies of the issue of homosexual boy prostitution in America. Many aspects of Lloyd's study are still applicable some twenty years later.

Lloyd covers this controversial topic beginning with his discovery that both his teenage son and ward have posed in the nude for a pornographer whom they first met while hitchiking to the beach. He covers the topics of boys consensually selling their bodies for money to older men, chickens and chickenhawks in his terminology.

He tells the story of 12 year old Jimmy who ran away from his abusive family in the Appalachians to make his way in New York. Befriended by a 15 year old pimp, he is introduced to gay sex and selling his body to older men. Lloyd gives the details of this seamy indoctrination.

He also tells the stories of some of the older men who pay for willing sex with these boys. Like the judge who had 18 boys that he had loved over his lifetime come to his funereal. He is unusual in that he puts real faces to these men, and does not demonize them. He even gives examples where boys have benefited from the caring given by older men, and have grown up to be good citizens.

Lloyd covers the faults in society, many of which still persist 20 years later, that cause boys to turn to prostitution. From abusive homelife, to child care institutions who provide abuse not care, to the juvenile justice system. Also he covers the problems of adoptions and fostering for openly gay boys.

He offers solutions ranging from new government bodies to speak for youth to liberalized adoption laws. Also the timely spending of money on youth in need of care before they become a criminal justic system problem.

While sensational in areas, even explicit in sexual details, this book is overall a sensible, rational study of the issues surrounding boys willingly sell themselves for sex. Many of the issues still persist today, and too many of the corrective actions remain to be implemented. All in all a good read for those interested in boys and their welfare.

I found this book to be very informative and interesting. It references specific cases and where boy prostitution can be found. Although dated, the problem still exists. I would love to read an updated version by this author to gauge any progress that has been made in the institutions in which we house young boys. I would recommend.

The book deals with a subject that is taboo in america, and a society that demonizes the boys and men who participate in older man boy sexual relations. In a way, it discusses pedophilia, since the boys are young, and the men who pay them are older, but it puts a face on the boys, and the men who pay them. Unlike conventional wisdom, which demonizes all sex between older men and boys, this book portrays the reality of such coupling, and the after effects. In other words, these relationships can be positive, and harm no one. The book covers the subject from the 1800, and the boy brothels in San Francisco, to the modern area and how boy prostitution is carried on. Although the book mainly deals with boys who get paid for their sexual favors, it also shows that at times money is given out of love, and not because of the sexual favors. All in all, this is the first book I have ever read that treats the subject without the stain attached to it in the modern era. It is best to read it with an open mind, and set any prejudices aside.