The following article was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle. After taking out some bus shelter ads for DaddyHunt, Justin Berton contacted me about doing a feature story on the site. The article was in the style section of the Chronicle on Sunday, June 17, 2007. I was more than a little thrilled at the interview request and the chance to hold forth on my philosophy about the attractiveness of older men.
Five Questions for Christopher Turner
by Justin Berton
Shortly after Christopher Turner started his Web site hotoldermale.com in 2002, a hot older male approached him while walking on 18th Street in the Castro district. The man said he recognized Turner from his online profile; he'd even printed out a photograph of the Internet entrepreneur. "Apparently he didn't post his picture because he was too darn shy about the whole thing," Turner, 35, recalled. The admirer was novelist and screenwriter Armistead Maupin, Turner's senior by 27 years. The two got to talking and have been a couple ever since. In February, they married.
Turner started his second site, Daddyhunt.com, a personals service that pairs men older than 40 with younger guys, because he knew there was a market for "intergenerational relationships." (Hotoldermale.com caters to those with more hard-core tastes.) Four years after its founding, the site hosts 100,000 members and draws 35,000 visitors per day, according to Google Stats. This week is a big one in the Turner-Maupin household. Daddyhunt.com unfurled billboard advertising in San Francisco, featuring shirtless young men being pawed by older hands, and Maupin is releasing his seventh installment of his "Tales of the City" book series, "Michael Tolliver Lives," which, it so happens, revolves around an older man who meets a young Web site owner.
Q: The new advertising campaign that's popping up around town -- why now?
A: We're at a place where we're happy with the site, and I just decided to spend some money on local advertising. There's already a large number of users in San Francisco, and I wanted to see if we could build a larger community here.
Q: You said that in younger-older relationships, most people from the outside think one person is using the other. What is the dynamic that people don't see?
A: I think when people see a young man with an older guy, they think, "Sugar Daddy." And I guess the same goes for straight relationships. But one thing people don't see is that a lot of people have a serious attraction to older men -- whether it's physical, emotional, intellectual -- and feel more comfortable in relationships with older men. I launched the site as sort of a political statement: You can have a loving relationship despite an age difference ... I think the Greeks understood it well, and so did the gay community. Back in the '70s, the gay community featured older, hairy guys in gay porn all the time. During the AIDS crisis, everything we saw, in advertising and porn, suddenly became young and clean.
Q: We all get older. As you age, do you wonder if you'll continue to seek out older males, or will a role reversal take place?
A: I don't know. Attraction is hard to understand. My current attraction toward older men has been around since I can remember, but I imagine that could change. I'm really not sure. That's always the issue with an age difference. With Armistead, he's 27 years my senior and, you know, he'll likely die before me. So there's the big issue of any age-difference relationship. But who knows? It's hard to say where my attractions will be in 20, 30 years.
Q: Had you read Armistead's books before he approached you on the street?
A: I hadn't. But I was living in London when the series was released on television, and it was a really huge thing in England. I couldn't wait for the next episode. ... I had been to San Francisco once before, and about six months later (after watching the series) I moved here. So, I feel like one of the reasons I moved here was because of his work; it reminded me of how great San Francisco is. That was 10 years before we met.
Q: In the book, did you read any parts and say, "Hey, that's me, that's us?"
A: Definitely. There are parts there that are based on us. Michael Tolliver, in some ways, is like Armistead. But in many ways he's not. Same goes for Ben, the younger man. Some of the dynamics are similar to our relationship, sure. But I don't want to say which ones, for the record. E-mail Justin Berton at jberton@sfchronicle.com. This article appeared on page E - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
My usual tip for friends visiting New Orleans is: Never drink anything named after a natural disaster. Now I would add this friendly bit of advice: The best way to encounter a hurricane … is from a distance.