Off beam
Sir: I number no political correspondents or diarists amongst my friends. Indeed, if Alan Watkins is in any way typical of such people I shall keep them at a barge-pole's length. What a potpourri of prejudice Watkins serves up for us, very much in the manner of a bar-side bigot (Diary, 29 June).
Isn't it time, Watkins, that you and all the other self-appointed spokesmen for oppressed heterosexuals remove the beams from your own orifices before attending to the motes in other peoples'? I know of no self-respecting gay who would be seen dead in the Salisbury; I can only conclude that the individuals described by Watkins were members of the fourth estate, `pretty' policemen and customs officers in pursuit of someone who can explain to them who Genet, Ginsberg, Pound and Catullus are.
I rarely enter heterosexual pubs, but when I do I find floors awash with vomit and blood, and broken glass showering around me. I am often nauseated by heterosexual couples engaged in 'heavy petting' in public places. Once, whilst taking an evening stroll in St James's Park, I encountered a heterosexual couple open- ly copulating on a park bench by the lake. I hurried off to find a policeman to arrest them but, alas, none could be found. I suppose they were all secreted in public conveniences.
Watkins's refusal to use the word 'gay' does not bother me unduly, but I wonder if he is consistent in his opposition to other minority groups appropriating words in everyday usage for their self-designation. I suppose that in fairness he must apply the same strategy to 'black' as in 'black' people; preferring to call them negroes, coloured people or (heaven forbid) non- Aryans.
Michael Lewington
2 Fawnbrake Avenue, London SE24
Previous page
