Boys Beware

"Boys Beware" is an educational film created by the Inglewood California Police Department. When seen today, it's pretty obvious that the film is crap...but back in the day this sort of misinformation was the norm. What misinformation am I talking about in the film? Well, the short talks about the dangers of homosexual men murdering and doing God knows what to boys. Today, these folks aren't seen as gay men but more correctly pedophiles. Because of this, I am sure the short film did a lot to confuse people and scare them into thinking gay men were all predatory and dangerous. I could go on and on about this, but the film simply presents misinformation again and again.

A short "educational" film, Boys Beware may have set out with good intentions- to warn children about sexual predators. That's a subject we're actually more sensitive about today than when the film was made, so modern audiences can relate to that. Where Boys Beware emerges as a relic of an old-fashioned prejudice is in its insistence on treating child molesters and homosexuals interchangeably. Homosexual is the word used to describe the predators in the film. It's called "sick" and not "normal." And "homosexual" is defined as someone who seeks a sexual relationship with one's own sex. So it's all homosexuals painted with one brush- never mind that most have adult relationships, all homosexuals are potential molesters.

To me, going out of your way to describe molesters who attack boys as gay is like referring to molesters who attack girls as straight. Child molestation just isn't a healthy orientation either way, and to associate it with one is dangerous. Conveniently, this film overlooks that some predators prey on girls. Maybe its intentions weren't so noble after all. At the end of the day, this is something people today can look back at with wonder, similar to Birth of a Nation's treatment of blacks. Thank God we've (mostly) moved passed this.

Recently a teacher got brought up on charges for showing this film in his class. Ironically enough it was not as part of some public health concern, but it was to show how attitudes have changed since 1961. In some places though they haven't.

Someone called this the Reefer Madness of gay films and I couldn't put it better myself. Anyone watching this film would think that gays were all predatory beasts just looking for young boys as sexual prey. Ironically enough no one seemed concerned about teen girls.

They got part of it right. Public bathrooms, called 'tea rooms' by those who frequented them, were part of the scene. But it was usually where adults hooked up as they really could not do it more openly. Those pesky sodomy laws you know. It was the love that dare not speak its name.

Looking at Boys Beware one wonders how could we have been so dumb?

Western societies have come a long way in their tolerance and understanding of gay people. This film, which one poster disturbingly tells us is STILL shown in schools in some backward parts of the country, is the REEFER MADNESS of homosexuality.

What might have been a harmless, even helpful warning to kids about pedophiles becomes ridiculous and ugly by its pretense of revealing what all *homosexuals* are like. The despicable smear that gay men tend towards pedophilia (about as factual as the ancient anti-Semitic lie that Jews kill Christian infants and drink their blood) is what this "educational" cheapie is all about.

That one poster actually commends this absurd gay-bashing propaganda as a worthy film that should be remastered and shown to kids today suggests how much ignorance and unexamined bigotry is still out there.

Reactions to the recent Tom Foley scandal showed how easily some on the political left as well as the right can fall back into the old know-nothing equation of homosexuality with pedophilia. Every educated person knows homosexuals are no more likely to be drawn to children than heterosexuals are.

This 10-minute short is worth viewing to remember how recently this kind of ignorant calumny was considered "conventional wisdom".

Boys Beware is a look back at a past when jobs were plentiful, neighbors were caring and trusting, and crime was low. As a result it helps bring out the knowledge of dangers to our young men in our community: The constant threat of pedophiles or other strangers who could potentially end their life. The short, produced on a frugal budget of $1000 dollars has excellent acting and provided a very important message to the community. This video was so well made it is still used to this day to help inform young ones about the dangers lurking in their community. I highly recommend showing your children this video so they know the consequences of trusting strangers without asking their parents if it is a wise choice to trust them.