Metropol

However much I love my gay friends, I don't want them running the country

Jan 27 2006

Lowri Turner, Western Mail

THIS week, not one but two candidates for the post of Lib-Dem leader have been revealed to bat for their own side.

First Mark Oaten, who has a head not unlike a well-polished cricket ball, was outed for decidedly dodgy goings-on with a 23-year-old rent boy, sometimes joined by his mate.

Now, Simon Hughes has admitted he is gay too. Hughes's statement is a bit mealy mouthed. He announced, "I am perfectly willing to say that I have had both homosexual and heterosexual relationships in the past."

That's a bit like telling people you once had a joint, but now stick to G&Ts, except that a person's sexual orientation is a little more fixed than their taste in end-of-the-day pick-me-ups.

Frankly, I don't trust a man who says he swings both ways, unless he is a spotty teenager who hasn't sorted himself out yet. Oaten is 41 and Hughes is 54. If they think they are old enough to run the country then surely they are old enough to work out which gender they fancy?

Those who claim to be bisexual are simply trying to fudge the truth. Well, have you ever heard of a chap with a public boyfriend who has women on the side? Of course not. Too many gay men have wives and girlfriends as window dressing and keep the boys hidden in the shadows. This is both miserable for them and devastating to the women involved. Belinda Oaten is so traumatised is said to want to end their 13-year marriage.

The reason Oaten and Hughes kept their true leanings secret is they believed that we, the public, wouldn't vote for them if we knew the truth. And, there is indeed a great deal of homophobia in this country. Simon Hughes went as far as to use his supposed heterosexuality to fight a vicious by-election campaign against gay rights activist Peter Tatchell. Twenty years ago, his party material told South London voters he was the "straight choice".

Even earlier this week, when asked if he was gay, Simon Hughes said, "The answer is no". How his tune has changed. Now that he is, um, sort of, maybe, a long time ago, gay, all of sudden it is not an issue. Peter Tatchell could have been forgiven for choking on his tea when he heard Hughes bleat, "I hope that does not disqualify me from doing a good job in public life".

That is the million-dollar question and the answer is pretty much up to us. If Hughes does still scoop the Lib-Dem leadership he will go before the nation and one of the factors (apart from the fact he lied) will be his sexuality. This is not something that will go away, as Michael Portillo found out.

Personally, I have to say that I don't think gay men make good party leaders or Prime Ministers. This has nothing to do with what they do in bed but everything to do with their lives in general.

Before I am accused of prejudice, I should say that not only are some of my best friends gay, but probably most of them are. I work in the media, for goodness sake. It is precisely because I know such a lot of gay men that I can say that I don't think many of them are capable of representing the interests of the vast majority of people.

Their lifestyles are too divorced from the norm. They are not better or worse, but they are different.

Gay men face challenges of their own, but they do not face those associated with having children which is the way most of us live. I have gay friends whose biggest headache is whether to have a black sofa or a cream one. If they have a child it is a dog.

My gay friends have not sat in accident and emergency with a small child. They have not had to make the decision over whether to give them MMR. They have not struggled to get their child statemented or gone through the schools' appeals process.

Without these experiences at the sharp end of our public services, they do not know how they function. This makes them completely out of their depth in administering them. In the same way that career politicians, those who have never had a real job but climbed the greasy pole by way of think-tanks and speech writing, are not equipped to make laws for the rest of us, so I think gay men are ill-suited to representing the interests of the population in general. However much I love my gay friends, I don't want them running the country.

marksi wrote:Actually what she appears to be saying isn't that she doesn't want gay politicians (which is what she thinks she thinks) but that you can't be a politican unless you have children. Her mind is clearly in proportion to the rest of her body.

Popbitch wrote:Which Lib Dem wannabe leader used to be
a regular visitor to a brothel in Paddington
where he used to pay girls to shit in their
knickers for him, and would then put the
dirty pants in his briefcase and take them home?