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Why Gene Hunt is gay
I just realized something.
I've watched all 16 episodes of LoM at least two times now, some of them three times. On the second rewatch, I was trying to find my ship. Because yeah, Sam/Gene is the obvious one, but I didn't see much future there, not with Gene being either an actual heterosexual with homophobic tendencies or a fake heterosexual with homosexual tendencies so deep in the Nile that even a trained team of rescue divers wouldn't get him out.
I thought about shipping Sam/Nelson - and still am, because, hey, shiny shiny ship, isn't it? The gay and the racial issue in one fic. Besides, Nelson is fun, and Sammy needs some cheering up. But while the ship is nice, it doesn't really fit into the show. I will have to think of a way to make it work, because I want the angst of Nelson getting hurt/being killed in a hate crime and Sammy desperate and unable to talk to anybody about it, but for now, I let my mind wander into a different direction.
I was thinking about writing a Gene/Sam fic in which Gene is hot for Sammy but can't admit it, and so it happens that he gets desperate at some point and tries to simply take what he can't bring himself to ask for, only to have Sam beat the shit out of him and tell him that if he wants this, fine with Sam, but he's not going to get to take it by force. After some sulking and wound-licking there would be a long talk and then some hot steamy man sex with a side dish of guilt thrown in.
Now, in the process of finding a plot that would bring Gene to the breaking point, I did some research to find out about gay society in 1973 - and this was when I had my revelation.
Gene Hunt could be a stereotypical homosexual for that day and age - closeted, but definitely out to himself.
I have this smart book -Hogwarts Homosexuality, a History - and there's a chapter in there about gay liberation in the late 60ies till the 80ies. '68 - or rather '69 - was a turning point for the gay liberation. In '69, the Stonewall Riots happened in NYC, in which the gay community protested against the police raiding the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street. '71, the Gay Liberation Front released a manifesto in Britain, and in '72, 2000 men and women marched in Hyde Park under the flag of the GLF. In the same year, the first issue of Gay News was released. However, the average early 70ies gay man wasn't all that hot on all the attention. Homosexuality had been legalized in '67, gay communities had formed in bars and bookshops and baths, and many members of the gay population wanted to rather enjoy what they had than continue to march and scream for more. Also, the female part of the GLF wasn't too happy with the prevailing focus on the male gay society and split off in '72. Many other sub-groups followed, and the GLF scattered.
Now, 1973, we have the GLF still quite strong and united, although on the brink of breaking up. The members of the GLF are mostly people between 25 and 35. So that would exclude Gene Hunt. Let's assume he is gay, and aware of that. He's married in canon, but his wife is so invisible that she might just as well be no more than a facade. By 1973, Gene Hunt has trained himself to keep a very, very low profile about his sexual life. He probably almost never practised his sexuality, until very recently when all this Gay Liberation stuff started. With a population of about 500,000, Manchester is quite a big city even in 1973, and there are a couple of gay bars and places for the gay community to meet and interact. Gene has started visiting them, but he is known there under an alias, never takes anybody home or goes with them, and his visits are rare and random. At work, he play-acts his facade of the heterosexual homophobic copper like he has done all his life. It's not even a facade to him. It's who he is in his work life. Actually, the secret visits to the gay districts feel much more like a farce to him. He doesn't know what to think of this Gay Liberation idea, all he knows is that keeping the sex life separated from the work life has worked well for him all his life, and whose business is it anyway whom he fucks and whom he doesn't?
Right. Now I've talked a lot. I think it's time now that I wrote the fic in which Sam finds all of this out and shows Gene that there can be more to a gay relationship than a quick blowjob in a toilet stall.
Because Sammy would never let Gene blow him in a toilet stall, now would he. That wouldn't be appropriate at all.
I've watched all 16 episodes of LoM at least two times now, some of them three times. On the second rewatch, I was trying to find my ship. Because yeah, Sam/Gene is the obvious one, but I didn't see much future there, not with Gene being either an actual heterosexual with homophobic tendencies or a fake heterosexual with homosexual tendencies so deep in the Nile that even a trained team of rescue divers wouldn't get him out.
I thought about shipping Sam/Nelson - and still am, because, hey, shiny shiny ship, isn't it? The gay and the racial issue in one fic. Besides, Nelson is fun, and Sammy needs some cheering up. But while the ship is nice, it doesn't really fit into the show. I will have to think of a way to make it work, because I want the angst of Nelson getting hurt/being killed in a hate crime and Sammy desperate and unable to talk to anybody about it, but for now, I let my mind wander into a different direction.
I was thinking about writing a Gene/Sam fic in which Gene is hot for Sammy but can't admit it, and so it happens that he gets desperate at some point and tries to simply take what he can't bring himself to ask for, only to have Sam beat the shit out of him and tell him that if he wants this, fine with Sam, but he's not going to get to take it by force. After some sulking and wound-licking there would be a long talk and then some hot steamy man sex with a side dish of guilt thrown in.
Now, in the process of finding a plot that would bring Gene to the breaking point, I did some research to find out about gay society in 1973 - and this was when I had my revelation.
Gene Hunt could be a stereotypical homosexual for that day and age - closeted, but definitely out to himself.
I have this smart book -
Now, 1973, we have the GLF still quite strong and united, although on the brink of breaking up. The members of the GLF are mostly people between 25 and 35. So that would exclude Gene Hunt. Let's assume he is gay, and aware of that. He's married in canon, but his wife is so invisible that she might just as well be no more than a facade. By 1973, Gene Hunt has trained himself to keep a very, very low profile about his sexual life. He probably almost never practised his sexuality, until very recently when all this Gay Liberation stuff started. With a population of about 500,000, Manchester is quite a big city even in 1973, and there are a couple of gay bars and places for the gay community to meet and interact. Gene has started visiting them, but he is known there under an alias, never takes anybody home or goes with them, and his visits are rare and random. At work, he play-acts his facade of the heterosexual homophobic copper like he has done all his life. It's not even a facade to him. It's who he is in his work life. Actually, the secret visits to the gay districts feel much more like a farce to him. He doesn't know what to think of this Gay Liberation idea, all he knows is that keeping the sex life separated from the work life has worked well for him all his life, and whose business is it anyway whom he fucks and whom he doesn't?
Right. Now I've talked a lot. I think it's time now that I wrote the fic in which Sam finds all of this out and shows Gene that there can be more to a gay relationship than a quick blowjob in a toilet stall.
Because Sammy would never let Gene blow him in a toilet stall, now would he. That wouldn't be appropriate at all.
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Thanks for the links! I'm sure I'll enjoy it :).