A theory:

I have a friend who is in a quite happy and successful relationship with a man 22 years his senior. 

I didn't know their ages were so disparate for awhile into our friendship. I guess it's a weird thing to bring up. But I do remember thinking before I learned how old he was "wow, dude must be some type of genius to have such a successful job so young." It's just the type of casual assumption we make everyday, that people commit to relationships with partners similar in age. 

Anyways, I talked to my friend about it more and thought about it more and realized that such age differences aren't so uncommon among gay relationships. And upon purging my own subjectivity I decided that I personally find it less weird for men to be in a sexual relationship with such a wide age gap as I do when a man and a woman are in one. I mean 20 years is a big deal.

I presented the following theory to my friend: Maybe the difference in age between him and his "lover" (never his boyfriend) compensates for the difference of consciousness between man and woman. Maybe the reason men and women can be so successful in relationships is because we are so different, just in the way we think. Can a 20 year age gap, which is an enormous amount of learned experience and accumulated consciousness, act as the possibly necessary barrier between the sexes? 

This of course doesn't imply that all gay relationships must include this age gap to be successful only that it possibly provides a context in which we can demystify societal unnorms. 

There is another thing to consider too which is that historically initiation has been important trope among gays. The idea that an older man encourages and invites an as of yet untrained youth into the fraternity that is both sexual and romantic and intellectual stretches back as far as Ancient Greece where the "student/teacher" relationship was passed off from generation to generation.

that's all. I guess this was a pretty random post.