By Mark Simpson (Originally appeard on Guardian Unlimited, 28 Jan 2009) ‘If a bullet should enter my brain, let it destroy every closet door.’ So says Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the gay activist who became California’s first openly gay public official. Any concern that this may be a slightly… Read More »Milk Toast: How Van Sant Cut Off Harvey’s Balls
A little late -my brain turns to plum pudding during the festering season – I’d like to flag up a section on gay marriage from the stand-up intellectual Camille Paglia’s December column on Salon.com. Mostly of course because it mentions me in a flattering fashion. (If you find mutual love-fests… Read More »Marry Me, Ms P – But Civilly
by Mark Simpson (A shorter version originally appeared on Guardian CIF November 2, 2008) “It’s better to marry than burn with passion,” declared St Paul. But now marriage itself seems to have become a burning issue – or at least, gay marriage. The re-banning of gay marriage in California earlier… Read More »Let’s Be Civil: Gay Marriage Isn’t The End of the Rainbow
A remarkably, refreshingly reasonable treatment of the Spitzer scandal and the indispensable social role of prostitutes by a woman, Minette Marin, in The London Times (if a straight man had written this he would probably have faced a lengthy free sex ban): Right up and down the scale, a man… Read More »Is There Sex After Marriage?
Why can’t gay men be more lesbian? asks Simon Fanshawe’s The Trouble With Gay Men Why can’t gay men grow up? Why can’t they get themselves a nice cat instead of behaving like dirty dogs? Why can’t they listen to Radio Four more instead of trawling the net for sex?… Read More »The Trouble With Men