Oddverse.com

Mince: More than a way of walking

This week, I was accosted by a drunked Euan from work. "Doctor Oddverse," he says to me in his posh St Ninians accent. "Doctor Oddverse, is Dermot gay?"

It seems that as the official poof in the office, I am supposed to know. It makes a bit of sense, I guess.

"I don't know," I replied. "I didn't get the e-mail from the Gay Register telling me."

I was drunk too at this point. Hence the crappy quality of my humour.

Euan was, however, able to give me another bit of information. Dermot's flat mate is Niall. I've met Niall before.

Indeed, when I first started working here in Foreign, Niall sat three desks away from me. Niall is flamboyant, Niall minces, Niall is camp as Christmas in G-A-Y would be probably. But, I'd been told he wasn't a gentleman-who-only-likes-sport-for-the-costumes. Or at least if he was, he wasn't open about it.

There's a very real sense in which this is all completely irrelevant. It doesn't affect Dermot's ability to do his job, any more than it affected Niall's. I'm not going to be looking for office romance. It would be nice if he could be open about it, but I know exactly how hard that is. I'd hope that the fact that Dermot's already met Mr Twinky makes it easier for him. And I know that he has told Triona, but obviously I can't ask her, because that would look like I'm making an issue out of it. And I don't want to do that. I've written about it twice here, but that's just because in a tedious job, it's the one thing that's been interesting in the last couple of weeks.

I had another conversation on Wednesday night, with Craig who I have known for years. We spoke about one of our former colleagues, and how he wasn't out at work, despite having been in his current relationship for fifteen years. It's still not an easy thing to do. If you're in the habit of not talking about it, then you don't talk about it.

Anyway, I've now had definite confirmation from Dermot. Which is nice, and changes absolutely nothing.