"No, no, I mean it. I'm glad I have nothing to do with the straight male thing suppressing women. Look I went to a psychiatrist once, don't we all. They've got past saying you're sinful, now they say you're sick. But to me, anyone who doesn't say being a homosexual is OK, well he's no good to me. What we're trying to do here is not only make people like you feel that being gay is good. We want to set up a whole new scene for gay people. Because they said we were criminals or ill our sex was furtive, scuffles in public lavatories, cruising on some heath, a quick grope wherever we could find it. That's not what homosexual means, only what society has made it mean. They fill us with self-hate, they make our lives intolerable and then they point the finger."
An unnamed boy in a bar quoted in Gay Is The Word by Jill Tweedie.
Reprinted today in The Guardian's From The Archive section.
Several things may strike a modern reader; how she contrasts the furtive and oppressive UK with the seemingly gay utopias of Arab countries, such as Morocco.
And how homosexuality is presented as an almost existential ideological challenge to the dominant culture.
"Gay Lib is in the business of rocking the boat. Though they want legislative and attitude changes these young homosexuals, by their very acceptance of the normality of homosexuality, challenge the status quo, the dedicated heterosexuality of the normal man and woman which creates the family unit, foundation stone of the capitalist system. Gay Lib does not plead for the right of homosexuals to marry. Gay Lib questions marriage.
"And they are beautiful to see..."
Happy times.
• If you're interested in "this sort of thing" have a look at the website of the Lesbian And Gay News Media Archive, who are currently putting their collection of newspaper cuttings online. It would make for a fascinating book, I think.
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