‘They should be. I haven’t had much to do with them, except as young fathers, a category I’m predisposed to. If I had a chance, however, I’d say to them that any girl who was willing was either stupid or manipulative, and either kind is expensive in ways most boys can’t afford. There’s an added dimension now. AIDS is spreading into the heterosexual population. If we don’t teach children safe sexual practices, we face not only unwanted pregnancies and ordinary venereal diseases but a virus that kills.’

‘I’ve been reading about that in The Body Politic,’ David said.

‘What’s that?’

‘Canada’s gay paper.’

‘Why would you read something like that?’ Diana asked.

‘I thought I might learn something from it, and I have,’ David said.

‘About me?’ Diana demanded.

‘About your world,’ David said.

‘I don’t have a world, David, not in that sense,’ Diana said; her voice, which had been clinically cool throughout this conversation, was now simply frigid.

‘If you’re going to fight,’ Constance said, ‘I warn you, I’m on David’s side.’

‘Why on earth would we have to fight?’ David asked, entirely bewildered.

‘Diana would rather sex was holy,’ Constance said.

‘I would rather my brother didn’t assume I speak from some kind of minority position!’

‘I don’t,’ David said, ‘except that you’re in a minority of people who may know what you’re talking about. I’m ignorant in ways that humiliate me.’

‘Reading about a homosexual subculture to understand me is insulting,’ Diana said coldly.

‘Diana doesn’t approve of parades,’ Constance said.

‘They’re beside the point,’ Diana said, speaking more sharply to Constance than David had ever heard her do.

‘Do you simply accept all the injustice?’ David asked.

‘It has nothing to do with me.’

‘It could have ruined your career!’ David protested. ‘People are still committing suicide when they’re exposed!’

‘So are pregnant girls,’ Diana said.

‘Anyone can commit suicide,’ Constance seemed to agree.

‘David, the point is that any number of things could have ruined my career, being a woman, being left-handed. If there hadn’t been a war, I wouldn’t have had the money to go to school. When people want to be unjust, any excuse will do.’

‘But it shouldn’t be allowed,’ David argued.

‘Changing things means killing people,’ Constance said, ‘whatever side you’re on.’

‘You can’t extend your sympathy to men arrested in public washrooms and think you’re doing me any favour,’ Diana said.

‘Do you think they should be arrested?’

‘Of course not,’ Diana said, ‘but a lot of them will tell you it’s God’s will.’

‘Because they’ve been taught to feel ashamed.’