um wow - a gay decides to become not-gay and gets to write an article in the Times about it.

The day I decided to stop being gay
Twenty years after he came out, Patrick Muirhead, 41, explains why he is suddenly feeling the appeal of the opposite sex.



So suddenly he's frothing at the groin at the mere thought of poo-tang (is that how it's spelt?) and getting uncontrollable constant stiffies at the sight of hooters?

Um - no, he had a haircut at his barbers - saw a father and son - and oh, suddenly started feeling envious and a bit broody. The rest is well, put bluntly, homophobia really - both internalized: "I was never convinced of my sexuality" and externalized: "Civil partnerships really are little more than theatrical shams involving men making a point in matching wedding cravats, of embarrassed grandparents and monstrously camp multi-tier cakes." He throws around the words 'abnormal', 'aberration', 'loathsome' in his descriptions of homosexuality.

But hey - what a great way to get some snide gay-bashing into a supposedly, what do I call it? a 'proper' 'grown-up' paper?

I'm just left with some imponderable questions:

1. Who is this person really? How ever did he get to write this article for 'The Times'.

2. I also wonder how many stories/articles there are in the Times that are pro-gay as opposed to anti-gay. [I know that stories about Christian 'boot camps' that purport to cure homosexuality by replacing it with fervent fundamentalist Christianity are always popular. In the Times - as in the Guardian.)
[Although these are both old examples - I've read more recent article on dead tree - they're just harder to find online. (Why are newspaper's own search engines so pitiful?)]

3. Of course - there's no news in all those gay folk who are going about their lives being happy and content with their sexuality. There's no headlines for them proclaiming: "The day I just kept on being gay and never stopped."

No comments: