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The Queen
makes personal gesture to facilitate gay
partnerships
08 Jan 2006- Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the UK and a multitude of other
countries, symbolic head of the Anglican Church, head of the
commonwealth, and a living embodiment of conservative and long-standing
traditions stretching back many hundreds of years, has given her
blessing to at least one gay civil partnership in a most personal and
practical way.
Of course, in her inherited role as
head of state of the UK she pretty much had no real choice about signing
the legislation parliament approved recognising civil partnerships
between gays and lesbians, so even if she had not approved, it would
have been difficult for her not to sign it. And by avoiding making
public political comments her opinions on a wide range of matters are
not known to the general public. So up to now, her opinions on the
matter have not been known.
But on Wednesday The Queen made a
very real pragmatic and personal gesture that signified acknowledgement
of at least one civil partnership between gay men: So that Elton John
and David Furnish could get to their partnership registration in their
Rolls-Royce more easily and discreetly, given some expected crowds and a
fair amount of press attention, she allowed them to take a short cut to
Windsor Guildhall by nipping through her back garden. And we aren’t
talking any old back garden either: We are of course referring to the
crown estates that ajoin Windsor Castle and Windsor Guildhall, one of
the most magnificent and prestigious ‘back gardens’ in the world.
We should not be that surprised
really. After all, The Queen grew up in a household when gay courtiers
seemed to be represented out of all proportion to the percentage of gay
people in the general population. During the 1970’s, when issues around
the acknowledgement and acceptance of homosexuality came up for public
discussion, The Queen Mother, a close friend of Noel Coward, was heard
to say once, “We rather like them actually. And if we didn’t have any,
we’d have to go self-service”. In later years when two footmen were
overheard in heated discussion, the Queen Mother said, “When you two old
queens have finished arguing, this old queen would like her dinner
served”.
We find that some gay people seem to
have inclinations that lend themselves to being excellent diplomats. It
was after all the significant presence of gays in diplomatic roles in
the home office, foreign office and security services that was a main
reason for decriminalising homosexuality in the UK, to reduce the
likelihood of blackmail by acknowledging homosexuality as being
acceptable. Even going back to Biblical times, gay people were often
prominent in palaces – often confusingly called ‘eunuchs’, because they
did not have the ‘heat’ for women – Daniel and Ashkenaz, for example. So
it is not surprising that parts of our establishment that most represent
tradition are in fact the most tolerant of homosexuality – their
familiarity causes realisation that there is nothing to fear.
That the Queen allowed Elton and
David to nip through her back garden – an honour accorded to very few
people indeed - has not received much coverage in the press. But it is
often small and personal gestures which give away people’s real
attitudes rather than the public gestures which are often dictated by
protocol. So for the Queen to make such a personal gesture for one gay
couple is a much louder message to the world about her acceptance of
committed relationships between people of the same gender than her
original signing of the legislation which brought it into reality.
Mike Hersee
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