Homosexuality
I didn't know there was such a thing as homosexuality until I was twelve years old. Growing up in an East Yorkshire village, nobody had ever spoken to me about homosexuality and if there were any gay people in the village, I was certainly not aware of them. In those days the term "gay" had everything to do with happy summer days, Enid Blyton adventures and light-heartedness. for it had not yet been adopted as an alternative name by the very well-hidden homosexual community. No television or radio programmes ever referred to gayness and as far as I knew there were no gay characters in the books I read. Given this context, it was perhaps no surprise that later on I became somewhat homophobic. I was quite disgusted by it all and occasionally shared schoolboy tales of what we imagined gay men did together. Because of our ignorance there was much smutty laughter. Probably, the worst insults for other boys were "pufta" and "shirtlifter". I loved gi...