ABSTRACT
Like a lot of gay people, David expends a lot of mental energy thinking about being gay. It’s inevitable, when we live in a society where we are made to feel ‘different’, that we will be so self-conscious about so many of our actions. Although he thinks about being gay hundreds of times a day, in this piece David zooms in on his most persistent ruminations from a typical workday in a large secondary school. These 17 reflections are related chronologically, beginning with the never-ceasing novelty of waking up next to a man, his husband, in the morning. Then he moves on to deciding whether or not to wear ‘gay socks’ to work before exploring interactions with colleagues, to leading an assembly in which David shares his personal history with hundreds of teenagers and then, finally, the last thoughts of the day as his husband kisses him good night. Some of these things happen every day and some don’t, but they could happen any day.
