Charles,

If you don't understand the purpose of Bilerico, why not click that handy link right at the top of the blog labeled "About Us" where you'll find this description:
You'll find news and opinion on the Project from 50 different perspectives and backgrounds. You'll agree with some, disagree with others, and be somewhere in the middle with most. But wherever we're all coming from, we can bridge the geographic divides and have creative and productive conversations about issues important to the LGBT community.

So, while there has been no shortage of posts about California's Prop 8, there are a large number of other issues "important to the LGBT community" which get discussed here. Sorry if that's not what you're looking for, but resorting to making insults isn't the tone we tend to strive for at the Bilerico Project.

I wrote in and asked the editorial team if they would consider writing about the Wyler story because I've personally dealt with male-on-male sexual assault and in over 8 years, I've only seen a handful of people address the issue in a widely-read forum. My hope was that the Bilerico Project would help spread and support the discussion of queer rape, because TBP is the first site I check when I want thoughtful analysis of the issues in the news rather than just reposting from the mainstream media.

The point of this site, even for those of us who don't live with their grandparents, was meant to bridge divides in the LGBT community by increasing communication between various factions. It was never meant to be "all prop 8 all the time" - if you want that, please check out California Ripple Effect.

I agree that there is something "provincial" about that project, as the idea started with three rubes in Indiana thinking that (a)perspectives of non-coastal queers are exceptionally underrepresented in gaystream media and (b)issues important to one group of queers will never become important to others unless unless they're presented with others.

The idea that we should just be talking about what pleases ourselves and never demonstrate curiosity in subjects we haven't already discussed, which may appeal to self-absorbed heirs, we thought was counter-productive to the larger goal of LGBTQ freedom.

Although the fact that a prominent member (to others, I had never heard of Wyler before) of the gay community can be raped in what appears to be a homophobic hate crime and some in that same community will hope that it doesn't get discussed and dismiss is as "porn news".... well, that proves that we still have a long way to go when it comes to either treating sex workers as full human beings or dealing with rape.

It's not that being skeptical gets you much, it's just that it's a reasonable response to an extreme situation. A lot of folks have PTSD around police, and their responses aren't necessarily going to be rational, that doesn't mean that their emotional response isn't reasonable. Especially when the police response is to say that being in porn leaves you to blame for any sexual assault against you.

Looking at things logically, if I were so skeptical of the police as to not participate with the investigation, I'd probably just not contact the police. But the message that you go to the police when your the victim of a crime is so strong that I might not do the logical thing either, especially when dealing with a trauma.

Sure. http://silenceofthechinchillas.blogspot.com/

It's useful to make the distinction of believing a rape victim for the purposes of punishing the perpetrator -- we do have a justice system to help with that, I don't often feel the need to inject myself into it -- and believing a rape victim for the purpose of providing support. While understanding that you'll often not be provided with enough information to make a firm determination, you'll always have to decide if your going to show open skepticism in front of a person claiming to be raped and focus on getting the real story, or focus on providing a sympathetic ear. The former can cost a lot to victims, whereas the latter rarely costs anything but my time and sympathy.

When dealing with the issue of providing support, which I see this blog post as a part of, I think it's appropriate to automatically believe someone until there's a good reason not to. The link you show has a lot of compelling information, but what I was responding to was mark's comment that what convinced him it was a hoax was the presence of sexual images on his blog.

The expectation that Wyler should dismantle his business before announcing that he had been raped seems like a very prejudicial expectation of sex workers and very much reminds me of the content of the recent post, Sluts Still Get to Say No.

I can see other reasons why someone might be skeptical, but that one reason given to be skeptical seems to just go along with the "if you do sex work then you deserve to be raped" thing.