PR-225 2069

Excerpt

He smiled encouragingly at Ronnie, seeming to really see the boy for the first time. The colonel gazed at him for several minutes while Ronnie struggled to think of something else to ask.

“Have you proposed publicizing it—openly, I mean?”

“No, not yet. Of course, there’s no question of the propriety of gaysex, in the Service or any place else.

Likewise, there is no question of validity in what I want to do. All the arguments are backstage, so to speak. Ever since the government established precedent by withholding Federation funds from school districts that discriminated against gays, the issue has been firmly established. What we’re fighting now is the old reactionary element, and that means mostly Humpties.”

“Don’t you see?” said Jack, turning his full attention to Ronnie. “These Humptie mucks are so wrapped up in being straight, and so under the thumbs of their anti-Lez wives, they can’t understand or condone the Service’s need to have gaysex as a common practice among men on prolonged space flights. What are the guys supposed to do, play with themselves? Why, some of the smaller ships don’t even give them enough privacy to do that!”

“Our problem,” the colonel explained, “lies in overcoming social, not legal restraints. Legally, we have to be granted full equality before the law and in public accommodations, and so forth. But when a gay family moves into a straight neighborhood, there’s still the old name-calling, and their kids—if they have any—are apt to get a rough time in school. It’s the same old story, and now the Humpties are afraid to have it publicized that the Space Service takes only gays, or boys who are gay-adaptable. They say it smacks of reverse discrimination. Maybe it does, but that’s a fact of life. Anyway,” he added, smiling again at Ronnie. “It’s been one hell of a day.”