ABSTRACT
In Britain, tales of the closet in the nation-state are receiving a great deal of coverage as we research and write this chapter. On 8 November 1998, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown publicly declares his homosexuality after being threatened with exposure by a former lover (Travis 1998). This story comes on the heels of the resignation of Ron Davies, Minister of Welsh Affairs, who reported being mugged on Clapham Common late one evening. The mysterious resignation could only be explained, the media claimed, as pre-empting an outing since a likely reason for his presence on the common at night would be to cruise the ‘beat’ for gay sex. 2 Still earlier in the month Cabinet member Peter Mandelson was outed on a national news programme. With all these closet doors swinging open, The Sun provocatively asks in a front-page headline if the country was being run by ‘a gay mafia of politicians, lawyers, palace courtiers and TV bigwigs’ (Pallister and Gibbs 1998: 3). And the issue continues to receive press attention, despite the fact that a majority of Britons feel that being gay is morally acceptable.3
