I remember several years ago when "porn addiction" was all the rage in gay male online communities as an explanation for erectile dysfunction, based mostly on a study whose conclusions didn’t seem, on close examination, nearly so broad or definitive as people made them out to be.

Suddenly every gay man who had occasional trouble getting hard with a partner seemed to believe his problem was porn addiction. Not only that, but common wisdom held that too much porn would probably permanently damage neural circuits, making partnered sex forever difficult or unfulfilling.

I wrote an article digging into the issue, basically just quoting sexuality experts who were advising people that the ED/porn connection was not nearly so clear cut, and that even if a causal link existed, neurological damage and permanent effects were, at best, highly unlikely.

Talk about a popular article! It seemed everybody wanted to read it, even cis/straight people.

The middle-aged gay men who were my target audience reacted in a mixed way. Some were happy to see information that countered prevailing views, but many pushed back pretty strongly.

It took me a while to realize that a certain amount of internal homophobia or self loathing was part of some of the pushback. Of course, I had no way to quantify that, but some responses seemed to make it evident.

I’m really interested to see your thoughts as a trained specialist and a queer person. You’ve affirmed some of my thinking and helped me examine other issues that hasn’t occured to me.

Great article!