Britain’s soap operas are a cesspit of political correctness, but either the scriptwriters have had a sudden spiritual awakening, or they are yet again engaged in a scramble for the top ratings by coming out with the wildest and most outrageous plots, although what will hopefully be played out in Coronation Street is by no means as rare as the powerful and extremely noisy homosexual lobby would have us believe.
Airhead hairdresser Maria may be stunningly attractive but she also has plenty of baggage, which is understandable considering that she saw her husband murdered, and then became romantically entangled with his murderer. A woman who has been through so much might just be cynical about men, but Maria has no such problems with Marcus Dent, because medical professional Marcus bats for the opposition, openly so, and after all, every girl should have a gay best friend.
Of course, Marcus has romantic entanglements of his own, for those who have the temerity to call two men sharing the same bed (or cubicle) a romantic entanglement. Maria is glad of his company when he moves in, and has no problems with him looking after her young son. No, you disgusting people, that is not what is being suggested, in fact Marcus is about to develop an even more outlandish sexual attraction than that, for him at any rate.
Maria has been having strange thoughts about their friendship which she knows can never be anything more than that, but, after she finds a lump in her breast and confides in Marcus, he accompanies her to the hospital, where it is quickly diagnosed as benign. Then, at home and alone with him, she expresses her relief and her gratitude for his support, and kisses him, like kisses him, none of this peck on the cheek stuff. And Marcus kisses her back. They are shortly interrupted by Maria’s hunky boyfriend, local builder Jason who is actually Mr Gay Weatherfield (it’s complicated, but no, he is 100% straight). Naturally he suspects absolutely nothing, and later Marcus tells Maria that what they did (and what they might have done had they not been interrupted) is down to the stress she has been under recently, and off he goes with one of his men friends to Manchester’s Gay Village, but who is he kidding?
As if by coordination, in EastEnders, the feisty Lola has just blurted out to Phil Mitchell that his gay son is the father of her daughter. How did that happen? Well, Ben was a sexually confused teenager who found himself attracted to another boy and decided to come out. This sort of attraction is by no means uncommon, but it is in no way sexual. Many of us are attracted to people of either sex and way outside our age group for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with sex. Political and world figures as diverse as Barack Obama and Eva Perón; Diana Princess of Wales and Adolf Hitler have spawned such adulation. Look at the massive outpourings of grief over the deaths of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, not to mention John Lennon (1980), Elvis (1977) and so on. This is what love is really all about, not sexual gratification or even physical contact. Back to Marcus. While Ben may be a sexually confused teen, Marcus has no such excuse, could he really be falling for Maria?
This raises the question, is homosexuality genetic or is it a lifestyle? The answer is almost certainly a bit of both. Sure, we have most of us met men who are effeminate – which is not necessarily the same thing as homosexual – but we are all of us the product of our genes and our environment, not to mention luck, which can be either good or bad. Okay, there are some things we can’t change: our race; our height – not really; our sex – not most of us. Those of us unfortunate enough to be born with serious genetic or physical disorders such as cerebral palsy can’t do much about those either, although some conditions can be controlled with drugs – diabetes, for example. Sexuality though is largely a matter of choice. Some people, mostly men, are born inherently violent, but in order to become a serial killer or just a plain thug, a man must make a conscious choice. Just as a woman can say no, so can a man. It may be that some of us are born with a desire to rape, but the act itself is a choice, no jury would ever consider otherwise.
So could Marcus become heterosexual, could he bed the lovely Maria? Yes, and this happens more often than the homosexual lobby cares to admit. Tom Robinson was a self-professed homosexual, and his early songs like the ironic Glad To Be Gay are full of anger directed at the supposed oppression of homosexuals. Then, Robinson turned his back on homosexuality – pun intended – and is now a happily married man with a family. Another, far more serious case, was Adam Hood, who is not only a proud former homosexual, having found salvation through a very personal revealed truth, but now actively campaigns against homosexuality.
In short, homosexuality is a choice. For most of us that choice is an easy one to make, as easy as choosing knowingly to put one’s hand in a bowl of boiling hot water, or refraining from doing so. For some people, strangely, it is a choice that has some allure, but the vast majority soon realise it is much better to stay on the straight and narrow, or even the straight and broad – there are lots of things one can do with a member of the opposite sex besides the missionary position.
The really big question is, will this trend continue in the soaps, or is this just a blip? Hopefully it will continue, and maybe even start a trend.
[The above blog was first published October 6, 2012; the original wasn’t archived. When I saved this file nine years ago, the associated photograph didn’t save, but that isn’t important.]
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