By law, your workplace is now a humour-free zone
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I was shocked. I was a liberal child of the Sixties, at ease with gay friends. So I ignored the advice. Never mind whether she was right or not, for I staggered out of that weird glossy world for ever six months later, disproportionately older and wiser. I tell the story just to illustrate how times have changed; even the grandest of grandes dames would not now dare say such a thing. And only the stupidest now assume automatically that all homosexual men are artistic and queeny; the quickest glance around at public life shows us that some of the most temperamental hissy-fits are performed by heterosexuals, and that a lot of “out” men are as placid and unstylish as any Fifties’ Pipe Smoker of the Year. I suppose there was a time when law and prejudice were so violent that queening around like Quentin Crisp was a gesture of stark, heroic political bravery for a gay man. It isn’t now: it’s a lifestyle choice. It is good thing that society has largely outgrown its homophobia. It is good that senior policemen such as Brian Paddick, dullish Cabinet ministers such as Chris Smith, dutiful clerics such as Canon Jeffrey John and powerfully masculine actors such as Sir Ian McKellen have come out. It makes it easier for us all to stop thinking of gay men and women as a homogeneous alien species and see them as individuals: kind, callous, artistic, insensitive, idle, brilliant, stupid, fascist, holy, boring, funny, fascinating, faithful, treacherous — whatever. More : timesonline.co.uk |