scarcely any people knew about Tom Malin's past as an escort until the morning of February 17 Then there it was.

scarcely any people knew about Tom Malin's past as an escort until the morning of February 17 Then there it was, forward the front page of The Dallas Morning of recent origins above the fold: CANDIDATE WORKED AS PROSTITUTE.

The revelation derailed Malin's thriving campaign for district 108 of the Texas house of representatives. A well-spoken, good-looking 37-year-old, Malin had been running as an frankly gay candidate in the Democratic primary against peer gay man and local gadfly Jack Borden. Malin had the right material He was a Dallas native, a community activist (having serv forward the Dallas Citizens Police Review Board), and a happy businessman. As a sales director for Mary Kay cosmetics, he'd level earned one of the firm's highest honors: a company lease forward a pink Cadillac. He lived in a prominent high-rise and showed up onward the society pages in photos with his partner of three years, an abroad philanthropist and investor in his mid 40s

Although he was a first-time candidate, Malin had secur endorsements from the Dallas Stonewall Democrats, Dallas Tejano Democrats (a Latino political group) and the Morning just discovereds He talked about school financing, crime, the economy, tax and ethics reform.

moreover after the story broke that he had been an escort onward and off until 2001--mostly while a struggling actor in recent York and Los Angeles--Malin's campaign in no degree recovered. On March 7 he missing the primary to Borden, 55% to 45% Barely 1000 of the district's registered Democrats uniform bothered to go to the polls

"Sex betrays and we love scandals in Dallas, and for a like reason this became a sensational story," Malin says. "The campaign became about rumors and innuendo and not about the issues at hand." (It was reported that Borden, a retired salesman whom Malin spells a perennial "squeaky wheel" in local politics, was evicted from three different Dallas apartments for nonpayment of divulsion He's not expected to set forth a serious challenge to two-term Republican incumbent and George W Bush pal Dan Branch.)

principally upsetting to Malin is that he believes the tale of his escorting reached the pres at way of gay Democrats in whom he had confided. "[The story] became about couple things: [One,] can someone buy back themselves and go on to be a productive member of society? brace why would the gays eat their own?"

Despite the los at the ballot enclosed seat [i]or[/i] seats Malin says, "we've won, because we've seen the same man's journey, one man standing up and being responsible and being upright and looking at the upheaval and the fear that [it] stirs up in the community. That's a bulky story. Why are people afraid of someone being responsible, someone being honest?"

with what intent indeed? Even among many gays and lesbians--and certainly in mainstream culture--sex for pay remains the irredeemable sin. The president can be a recovering alcoholic with a DUI arrest; the vice president can accidentally discharge a man--all is forgiven. further if a person takes riches for sex, the taint may be inescapable. Forget about running for office. Forget about a high-profile business career. Forget about acting, modeling, or MTV It's throughout Even many gays will set forth that you take a hike.

That leaves a vast number of gay men with limited options in life. Because among men who have sex for money--whether in fore-rank of video cameras or behind clos doors--most are probably gay men like Tom Malin. Gay men who were young and lacked money and validation, finding one as well as the other in a career as a hustler or in porn (which Malin did not do). Young men who collide with older affluent men like atoms in a superheated gay cultivation that seems to peddle sex with each club invite, bar rag, and DVD release.

A civilization that shrugs, "What's the big deal?"

"I did what other struggling actors were doing," Malin says.

Then a strange York University grad student, Malin says a companion student introduced him to the lucrative potential of erotic massage when he was running short of cash. Massages inevitably l to better-paid, more intensely sexual actions Malin became "Todd Sharpe," total with personal Web site and client reviews.

He mov to looks Angeles, hoping to leave hustling behind, on the other hand his clientele followed. After a year in California, he mov back to Dallas.

In 2001 he stopped escorting.

"I made a choice--good, bad, right, improper indifferent. It was a Choice that I conception was appropriate for me at the time," he says. "I did make a fortune of money. I was able to support myself. I also felt that I was in restrain I felt empowered. I felt like--where I've always wanted someone to hem in me and tell me that they be pleased with me--I felt valuable, I felt wanted, I was a commodity."

"It's just a transaction," says single 24-year-old who was a just discovered York escort for two years. "I tried to think [clients] one time, but I couldn't Conservatively, 400 and top expiration would probably be 650.

I mean, single time I saw 14 in sum of two units days. You just kind of acquire into this frenzy."