K. Lewes's (1998) article is seen as an effort to locate the psychopathology and desiring patterns of some gay men in a variant of the Oedipus complex. This commentary questions the value of the Oedipus complex as a theoretical tool in the psychoanalytic formulation of male same-sex eroticism both on clinical and political grounds. It argues that the embedded primacy of evolution and reproduction in the theory of the Oedipus complex inevitably devalues same-sex desire. Equally, it argues that the Oedipus complex's tendency to reinforce gender norms and stereotypes is especially distorting when applied to same-sex desiring men, in that it may contribute to the analyst's clinical neglect of the role of gender conflict in pathogenesis. The author tries to show this through some examination of K. Lewes's (1998) clinical examples.