The ‘closet’ is increasingly becoming a lonely place for gay men.
Public figures whose sexuality would have remained firmly private until their Obituaries in the “Daily Telegraph” concluded with the three words “He was unmarried” are now rushing to discuss their preferences with all and sundry. Senior Police Officers, Cathedral Deans and even Tory MPs regularly adorn the pages of the gay press.
However, I am not sure if public life is healthier because Mr and Mrs Average happens to know that Mark Oaten had a taste for rent boys or that Simon Hughes has had gay relationships (never trust a man who dyes his hair says my Mother).
The country has managed for decades with gay men holding a significant number of public offices. The late Ted Heath managed to obtain the highest Office of State after he was supposedly advised to cease his Cottaging activities in the 1950s when he became a Privy Councillor and in recent times the Leader of one of the best Local Authorities in the Country only came out having received his Knighthood and after a scurrilous campaign by “Private Eye”.
I once asked the late Baroness Blatch as she tried to position herself to inherit the anti-gay crusade of Baroness Young exactly who she thought ran the Conservative Party in London? When she looked at me blankly I replied “the gay men of course” and certainly a huge percentage of Conservative Councillors , professional staff and Association Officers are gay .
In my experience the only people fascinated as to who does what and to whom are other gay men. The average voter could not care less if their Member of Parliament visits Hampstead Heath at Midnight as long as they get the holes in the road mended. The Anglican worshipper in the pew cares not that the local Bishop has a taste for black leather under their cassocks as long as keeps his hands away from the choirboys.
The recent concept of “outing” is something inspired by the tabloid press and designed not to liberate gay men (and it is almost universally applied only to gay men) but to discourage thousands of men from pursuing a public career because they genuinely feel that their private life is nobody’s business than their own.
Of course there is no place for hypocrisy in public life , I have no time for Members of Parliament who voted against repealing Section 28 and then put their hands down young Tory activists’ trousers when drunk at Party Conference.
The peculiarly English fascination with prominent people’s private lives, in marked contrast to France. does nothing but damage to our society. Let the George Michaels of this world who want to discuss their nocturnal activities do so. Let those politicians who just want to serve their constituents and the community in general and do not feel the need to parade their sexuality stand for election on their own terms.
Oh and before you ask, yes I am and I am open to offers!
Brian Coleman is London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden
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