Across the pond

It still makes a difference being gay in Britain, 2007. You are in no danger of the police carting you off to Reading Gaol but the emotions that did for Oscar Wilde are still a part of the British psyche today. So once the tabloids get the story (which may not be for a long time because coverage of higher education is not one of their news priorities) you will be known as the gay Vice Chancellor. The tabloids won’t be writing about your Fourth Dimension thinking, that takes more and bigger words than the tabloids like to print.

As you will have read in the press there is quite a battle going on over the gay adoption bill currently before Parliament. The Roman Catholic Church is lobbying vigorously for an exemption to the new law which would require adoption agencies to consider gay couples. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have come out and declared themselves firmly behind Rome on this issue. The British cabinet is split, with Communities minister Ruth Kelly, who is a Roman Catholic, on their side. She is allegedly supported by the Prime Minister, who is a closet Roman Catholic. (The rumour is that once Tony Blair leaves office and starts writing his memoirs he is going to declare his allegiance to Rome.) . Today’s Guardian, relying on un-named Cabinet sources, asserts that the Prime Minister has now decided to go with the cabinet majority opinion.

So your appointment will greeted with mixed feelings by the faculty of City university, which despite the fact that we have masses of foreign students, is still dominantly British. And we probably have a few Catholics.

You can, however, rely on the support of the journalism department, which is an enthusiastic fighter against discrimination against all minorities. And I can tell you a story which may warm your heart.

Back in 1981, at the end of a long day of interviewing, a young Australian called Martin Portus, walked in to my office. We did our usual thing of making him feel comfortable and getting him to tell us all about himself and why he wanted to become a journalist. Martin told us that he was gay and how important it was for gays to declare themselves and work to reduce the discrimination against gays.

My co-interviewer, Eric Stadlen, could not contain himself. He stopped him in his tracks. And told him that if he had been before a BBC panel he would already have ruled himself out, although he would never be told the real reason. If he wanted to get into journalism he must realise that you should keep such things to yourself.

After Martin left the room Eric and I had a little discussion about whether to take him. Eric, who had spent all his life in the BBC, which all readers of the British tabloids know is full of gays and Marxists, had worked with many gays.. But his own personal position was not too far away from that of the Archbishops. (The Daily Mail was his favourite newspaper.)

The professional question we had to answer was whether the candidate had what it takes to be a good journalist. In Eric’s terms, that meant that you had to be capable of removing yourself from the picture and reporting ‘objectively’ on events. Above all you must not fall in to the trap of voicing your own opinions and feelings.

On most of our interviewing criteria Martin was an above average candidate. So the decision was not that difficult. Most of our best candidates had very strong personal opinions and feelings of their own, which they wanted to voice. Like Martin, they would have to learn that most of their potential employers did not share their hatred of Margaret Thatcher. So we took him. And he did OK. I just looked him up on Google. After several years working for Australian ABC TV, he is now Director of Public Affairs at the National Museum of Australia and a board member of the Sydney Star Observer and Currency Press.

And obviously he did not get where he is today by following my avuncular advice not to tell everyone he was gay the moment he met them. On the contrary he seems to have established himself as a prominent member of down under’s gay community.

In doing my Google search I found a play review by Martin of Singing the Lonely Heart. His first sentence is:

Alana Valentine’s plays strive to deliver some social insight, often with a queer perspective, but also to transport us with something theatrical and magical.

I have not heard that word used in Britain since I was in the school playground.

Perhaps that is one more thing I should tell my new Vice Chancellor, Malcolm Gillies. Gay’s the word. It is only aged oiks from Wolverhampton like myself who still talk about queers.

After all, you could not have Queer Pride, could you?