Cottaging, Double Entendres and The L Word

I imagine myself to be a comedienne extraordinaire. At the very least, I find myself mildly amusing. I think it may just be my unappreciative audience. We simply aren’t on the same wavelength.

One of the things I find amusing is to use their respective innocence of all things queer to entertain myself. I ask if they are in ‘the L word’ with their boyfriend. I inquire as to whether they were ‘cottaging’ at the weekend if they go to their holiday homes by the sea. They are obviously totally oblivious to my implied meaning, perhaps some day they will remember and realise my gentle mocking. But more than likely they will continue the sheltered and inward-looking lives they have led up to now, and my humour will go unappreciated.

Gentle teasing it may be. Fundamentalists may argue it’s me trying to pollute their minds. Double entendres are harmless; it could go completely undetected by someone who was not familiar with the hidden meaning. Yet they have an offensive stigma attached by the person who doesn’t understand them but is aware that there is something not right with them.

Maybe it’s wrong of me to exploit their innocence (or feigned innocence), but grant me my petty concessions. It’s not easy to be young and gay in any situation, it is accompanied by doubts, which seem to be magnified by silence and difficult to find answers to in that great empty space which seems to be waiting to be filled.