Being An Ambassador To An Anti-Gay Country When You’re A Lesbian
April 1, 2016 3:09 AM   Subscribe

 
Good on Buzzfeed for taking on this class of interview. I hope it picks up another habit of mainstream quality reporting, that of having subs who can spot and excise cliche. It detracts from the impact of a piece when it's quite as thick with journalese as here.
posted by Devonian at 3:58 AM on April 1, 2016


Gough has two children – aged 3 and 11 – with her civil partner, Julia Kleiousi, whom the Daily Mail once said was a tennis coach. Kleiousi is a civil engineer.

It never ceases to amaze me how the Daily Mail can fill me with rage, even in absentia. However, fair play to Buzzfeed - this is excellent stuff.
posted by prismatic7 at 4:35 AM on April 1, 2016 [9 favorites]


The article quotes an internal memo from the British Foreign Office in the 80s that reports “homosexuals tended to promiscuity which involved mixing with ‘undesirable elements’ with consequent security implications.”

How I wish that were true. The claim that homosexuality is not generally a challenge to the privileged position of monogamy in society, which helps to preserve prevailing class barriers, seems to me a lost opportunity rather than something to celebrate.
posted by layceepee at 5:56 AM on April 1, 2016


Homosexuality is described as manifesting in a variety of forms “from inconspicuous stable relationships through promiscuity or exhibitionism to paederasty”

Also: heterosexuality.
posted by acb at 6:07 AM on April 1, 2016 [9 favorites]


Heartening.

Kind of weird to read that the FO guidance was anti-gay until recently as I would have thought the FO was packed with closeted male gays. OK, on reflection not really weird at all. The stuff about 'louche bars' may even have been delicately ironic.

Gough’s career began conventionally enough, as a consultant at Ernst and Young.

Is that the conventional way to start a career? No wonder mine didn't go so well.
posted by Segundus at 6:35 AM on April 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


Great interview, thanks for posting it. (And the opening section is hilarious—poor Foreign Office!)
posted by languagehat at 7:19 AM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am always agog at the old justification for firing gay people because if anyone found out they were gay they could blackmail them with threats of exposing them to their employers who would fire them.
posted by Etrigan at 8:38 AM on April 1, 2016 [12 favorites]


Great interview, thanks for posting it. (And the opening section is hilarious—poor Foreign Office!)

Agreed.

The yakety sax opening seems rather at odds with the impression you'd get of the place by looking at the pictures.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:09 AM on April 1, 2016


Is that the conventional way to start a career? No wonder mine didn't go so well.

For a diplomat? One of the many ways.
posted by Talez at 10:11 AM on April 1, 2016


“I think we have more role models now,” she says. “Do we need more? Yes, of course we do.”

YES. Thank you. People of all ages, especially young people and the adults in their lives, need to know that they are normal human beings, and just as worthy of love and joy as anyone else.

Finally, the reason for her earlier underlying anxiety surfaces: Doing this interview, she says, carries a potential personal risk to her.

Again, thank you to Gough for speaking out.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 11:41 AM on April 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


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