David finds his personal experience at odds with the ideological and utopian aspirations of his fellow socialists.

David makes some insightful remarks about how ideology clashes with reality in this short extract.

Working within, NALGO, the trade union for white collar workers, the attitude of many socialist members was that homosexuality was a 'bourgeoise deviation' and that it would disappear 'come the revolution'. However, David knew plenty of gay men and women from all walks of life.

He also noticed how working-class men and union members, several of whom David knew to be gay, still clung on to the mistaken belief that gays only came from the middle and upper-class circles. Citing the novel 'Brideshead Revisited' and its popular TV adaptation,

David implies that its imagery reinforced the notion that homosexuality 'didn't happen down the factory or on the buses'. David also recalls going to see the film 'Victim', which he thought was brilliant but without him telling anyone that he'd seen it. The film gave shape to feeling and questions he had and being the first British film to treat the subject seriously, Victim had a great effect on David.

Oscar Wilde was another author whose works gave gay men, according to David, the sense that they were not alone as well as the idea that men can love other men.

David ends by recalling what he says were 'wank-mags' like Physique Pictorial, which he collected while at university. These showed athletic and sporty images of men, usually showing off their muscles wearing only posing pouches, and while not being overtly gay, had a very powerful homo-erotic subtext as well as an almost entirely gay readership.

Born in 1942, in Crowborough, East Sussex, David enjoyed a rural childhood before being sent to grammar school, where he was treated as a 'pansy' by the teachers because he took no interest in sport, or girls.

Intending to study medicine, David felt, instead, he had a calling to the church, since the priests he knew were 'nice' and 'soft' in contrast to his father and brothers, who were plumbers and builders.

David also had a gay uncle, who had a long-lasting relationship with Sir Frank Carter (the philanthropist and co-founder of the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association) when he posted in Calcutta.

Before studying theology at King's College, London, David spent a year teaching at a boy's reform school in Lymington.

In 1974, David started working for Camden Council, joining the white-collar-worker's union NALGO, the National and Local Government Officer's Association, at the same time.

David 'came out' fully in the 1980s and has had a number of relationships, one of which lasted for more than 20 years.