Sir, – I disagree with Hugh Linehan’s discomfort, as outlined in his witty and entertaining article, with labelling people as “openly gay” (“From this day forward, feel free to describe me as an openly heterosexual columnist”, January 20th).
To follow the logic of his humorous declaration that he is “openly heterosexual” would surely mean that at some point heterosexuality was illegal and punishable by a smorgasbord of various repressive measures: ranging from rejection by family and friends to loss of employment to chemical castration to imprisonment with hard labour.
For gay people these privations may be non-existent in most developed countries, but even within the EU anti-gay legislation, propaganda and sentiment are being mooted by the emerging right in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
Being openly gay is an act of bravery whereby you risk everything not only in order to be true to yourself but to act as a beacon of light and hope for others. Would that I had some of those openly gay men and women of today as inspiration in my early twenties instead of a narrow range of stereotypes on TV. Would that I, in turn, could have been openly gay to the students I taught in my first teaching job in a Christian Brothers school in the 1980s.
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In later years the sense of affirmation some gay students felt when they bumped into me in a gay bar was not because I was anything special but I was someone they knew, their English teacher.
The sense of surprise was often mutual as occasionally they were wildly homophobic in class!
The 2015 marriage referendum in Ireland was successful precisely because gay men and women were openly gay to their extended families and fellow citizens.
As the assassinated political and gay activist Harvey Milk said: “How can people change their minds about us if they don’t know who we are?” – Yours, etc,
JOHN WHITE,
Dublin 7.