The Flag of Pride
Ivo and Martin were both gay but separated by more than two generations they were as different as night and day. Martin was classic Wilde, a dandy in his three-piece suit steeped in the principles of cultured pleasure and arcane conversation.
Ivo by contrast had been reared in that era that rejected staid society and unleashed the primal lusts of man. Confident of his physical prowess, he was far more interested in his sexual conquests than participating in anything that included the upper strata of society. He spent his youth prowling underground toilets and night clubs.
Martin felt that homosexuality made him more sensitive to artistic impulses though he himself had failed to produce a single novel for all the fanfare. Ivo thought being queer was natural – birds and mammals also had homosexuals in their populations; he just happened to get the DNA that made him that way. Actually, Ivo argued, animals were superior in that gay penguins were not chased out of the flock simply for their preferences that had absolutely no bearing on anything of importance to the survival of the penguin community.
Martin felt poofters were different to others of their sex, that they shared more in common with women, who also appreciated the gentler things in life. Ivo's comeback was bollocks, if wanted gentle, he wouldn't be chasing after other men; he liked men precisely because they weren't women.
But for all their differences they shared the common bond of all gay men, a sense of community and responsibility for one another as a minority in a larger society. However young a concept, "gay pride" spanned generations and made them brothers in their orientation and their fight for acceptance.
Similarly, I found that the others welcomed me with open arms despite my history of ambivalence. I was one of them now. The past didn't matter.