Same Difference

This issue's Editor's Choice is a collection of eight newly commissioned short stories, some from well know names. All of the stories have either gay or lesbian characters or characters who think they may be gay. Thus Gregory, in an entertaining story by Anne Fine, finds a novel way to come out to his mother; Vivian French's rather unconvincing scenario is about a parents' evening at which it is feared that Jude and Cass's parents, a lesbian couple, may be a source of embarrassment; Margaret Mahy's Isa discovers that you cannot tell who is a lesbian by the way she looks while William Taylor's Daniel finds he may not be the only gay in his class - and so forth.

The tone of this collection overall is self consciously bright and breezy. Gay stereotypes are rather too easily seen off, characters quickly sorted in terms of their sexual identity and endings upbeat - 'Maybe, just maybe, things are going to be all right' concludes Daniel who has 'admitted' he is gay while Isa and her lesbian friend Anthea, having reaffirmed their friendship, '... seized with the same impulse ... ran for the blue pool, dived, shimmering for a moment between two elements, still laughing as they dived.'

Full of Educational Intent, this collection rises above its good intentions only intermittently. And yet - AT LAST we have for the first time on a mass market, mainstream teenage list, a book about some of the everyday experiences of the young gays and lesbians in our schools. Until now such books have invariably been ghettoised - only available as a trade paperback (cf M. E. Kerr's outstanding novel about a young lesbian, Deliver Us From Evie) or published by the feminist or gay press. For many young people, whether gay, lesbian, or straight as well as for the many whose sexual identity is still not defined, this collection's educative function will be important. Ignorance and fear about homosexuality and the issues that surround it are ever prevalent despite the probable lowering of the age of consent for homosexuals to 16 and the debates that accompanied this.

One story in this collection causes concern: Andrew Matthew's 'Beautiful People' has a father telling his son how he, as a young man, decided not to pursue his passion for another young man ('... there comes a point in your life when you have to decide who you're going to be.') and then formed a relationship with a woman. This implies that sexual orientation is a choice. Certainly there are as many ways to become gay, straight or bi as there are gay, straight or bi people but 'choice' as presented in this story is dangerously simplistic and could reinforce anti-gay prejudices. The other stories in this collection provide a strong counter to the view presented here.