No worry about that book turning you gay. Plato doesn't have what we call "gay" in mind, strictly speaking, because it's clear he thinks bodily passions and sex are dirty. (Where do you think the Christians got that idea?) So it's gay in the sense of loving men (or boys), but any sex involving penetration is frowned upon. So it's more like gay celibacy. I never made this connection before... so this basically means that Plato was the Morrissey of ancient Greece!
Maybe not - he certainly does think of sex as a "lower" form of love, I'll give you that, but this is the fourth translation of the drinking party that I've read, and none of them have outright said the physical manifestation of affection is bad. That Socrates garners himself a hell of a reputation as a cock-tease.
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Heh. Martin Luther. Heheh.
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