At first he’d just daydreamed about Mr Roberts; in Seimon’s mind’s eye, his favourite teacher would be reading to the class – one of the poems they were studying in a literature project, or perhaps he’d be explaining something about the vagaries of Welsh grammar. Seimon found him fascinating to watch; those hands, with long delicate fingers, always expressive, and that face so animated with passion for his subject and the love of teaching. Then, in one of his early reveries, his teacher smiled at him. It was as if Seimon was the only other person in the classroom and Mr Roberts was only interested in him. The smile encouraged Seimon. Even Mr Roberts’ eyes smiled, beckoning, inviting engagement with the poem, the grammatical foible, the infatuation… with language. And Seimon felt special.

Dylan Roberts had gone back into the closet against his better judgement. He could remember the day he’d made that decision; it was late spring and he was driving to the interview for the job as Head of Languages at the new secondary school on the coast. After a sharp burst of rain, from an errant cloud that hung in an otherwise blue sky, a rainbow arched over the growing forest of wind turbines out in Liverpool Bay. Only then did Dylan remember that he’d slapped a rainbow sticker onto the back window of his car after the Cardiff Gay Pride parade. He pulled over before reaching the school to peel it off; he couldn’t see himself being out-and-proud in North Wales like he’d been in the capital. He’d got the job, on the strength that he could offer some German and French, and after selling his flat in one of the seedier Cardiff suburbs he’d bought a small house in Rhos-on-Sea, two streets parallel to the promenade.

In a small country, especially one that has recently gained some autonomy from its ruling neighbour, things can change quickly. By 2001 the Welsh Assembly Government was keen to hear from gays and lesbians across Wales – about their experiences of prejudice, their grievances and their aspirations. The new Minister for Education even made a thing about homophobic bullying in schools and in 2005 teachers were offered in-service training on how they could support gay and lesbian students in educational settings. Then Elton John married David Furnish and even the main Welsh language evening news on S4C carried the story.

Elton John was a favourite amongst many of the staff at Dylan’s school. The television news coverage and the wedding photos in the newspapers invited unanticipated conversations in the staffroom: Tony Morris, the Head of Maths and three years off retirement, came out as the father of – not one, but two gay sons; Ann Puw, one of the history teachers, talked about her lesbian sister; Jane Edwards, the only newly-qualified teacher at school and not yet twenty-five, shared that she’d grown up in a lesbian household with two mums.