Some of those men – gay but not Gay, as it were – regard the whole musicals-interior decoration-fashion-thing as a curious foreign language, not really worth learning. Some of them collect stamps and others work for engineering companies. Some gay men live their entire lives kitted out in beige anoraks. There are gay people who follow rugby and even play it – not necessarily in a pervy way – and those who genuinely quite like the New Statesman.
There are plenty of people – increasing numbers, in fact – who are gay without having much to do with traditional gay culture. What does it mean to be gay? Is it enough, as many people think, just to fall into the sex-clinic's category of 'men who have sex with men'? That is intended to include the closet case and the cottager who goes home to wife and children.
