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April 25, 2007
Ted Heath Was Gay?
I'm not quite sure what to make of this idea that Ted Heath was gay and spent the 50s going cottaging.
The former Tory prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, went "cottaging" for gay sex, it was claimed yesterday.
He stopped visiting the public lavatories after being warned that it could wreck his career. Brian Coleman, a Tory member of the London Assembly, who is gay, claimed that homosex-uals "ran" the Conservative Party in London.
Sir Edward, who died in 2005, never married but never admitted to being gay.
Mr Coleman, writing for the New Statesman magazine's online edition, was responding to a call by Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, to reveal "gay public figures". Mr Coleman said he disagreed that public life would be "healthier" if voters knew about gay MPs.
He said: "The late Ted Heath obtained the highest Office of State after he was supposedly advised to cease his cottaging activities in the 1950s."
Here's the actual claim in the New Statesman. Whether Heath was gay or not I don't know and don't particularly care (except perhaps to note that, if true, it was the Conservative Party which was liberal enough to go from a gay leader to a female one, something which the supposedly more liberal parties have yet to do) but I have to admit that I was always under the impression that he was actually asexual. Simply not interested in the matter very much.
Or is this another of those things which everyone in the Westminster Village knew but the rest of us didn't?
One further thought. Given the intense hatred of Heath in certain quarters politically, how on earth did this not get used as a weapon at some point?
Here's more from The Times.
Lord Carrington, who served as Sir Edward’s Defence Secretary, said simply: “What a load of nonsense.”
Lord Rees-Mogg, a former editor of The Timeswho regarded Sir Edward as a friendly political acquaintance, said he believed that Sir Edward was celibate. “I knew Ted in the Fifties and I ran into him all of the time. He always left on me the impression that he had no active sexual life at all,” he said.
“He had no coterie of young men. I knew several Conservative homosexuals at the time and they gossiped about anyone who was gay or might be gay. They never said that Ted was gay but did say that he was not interested at all.”
Perhaps something of a wild claim then, eh?
April 25, 2007 in Sex | Permalink
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Comments
This rumours been knocking around for years. My grandfather always claimed that Heath and a certain pop-star with Peter Pan tendencies used to meet in Bristol for trysts. That's what he claimed!
Posted by: MarkS | Apr 25, 2007 9:40:56 AM
This rumour has been knocking around for years. My grandfather always claimed that Heath and a certain pop-star with Peter Pan tendencies used to meet in Bristol for trysts. That's what he claimed!
Posted by: MarkS | Apr 25, 2007 9:41:33 AM
Now that really is a gruesome twosome..
Posted by: Barry Bethel | Apr 25, 2007 12:16:21 PM
A free society should respect all sexual preferences; including the preference to keep them private. To "out" the late Prime Minister in pursuit of a political agenda (when, if the story is true, he never chose to out himself) is as nasty, malicious and irresponsible as it would have been to do so to cause political damage in his lifetime. Actually, it's worse because it's cowardly too. During his lifetime he could at least have had his say.
I met him. I didn't like him. I thought he was a cold, haughty man. Nor did I like his political views. His sex life, however, was his business. Now he's dead, it's no-one's business.
Posted by: Tom Paine | Apr 25, 2007 12:16:32 PM
Thank you Tom Paine for that little moral lesson. I'm sure we all needed it.
Posted by: Little Black Sambo | Apr 25, 2007 12:19:44 PM
"A free society should respect all sexual preferences; including the preference to keep them private."
Ah, if only....
Of course, for the crusaders, grievance-mongers and activists, nothing is private if it helps their 'cause'.
"Thank you Tom Paine for that little moral lesson. I'm sure we all needed it."
Not sure that morality has anything much to do with it. Sheer common sense, IMO.
Tim adds: Amusing note. If you follow the link to the original NS piece it's matched with a Peter Tatchell one stating that outing "homophobic gays" is a moral duty.
Posted by: JuliaM | Apr 25, 2007 1:56:41 PM
'To "out" the late Prime Minister in pursuit of a political agenda (when, if the story is true, he never chose to out himself) is as nasty, malicious and irresponsible.'
That is a moral assertion, not just a statement of common sense.
Posted by: Little Black Sambo | Apr 25, 2007 2:10:25 PM
I meant that "A free society should respect all sexual preferences; including the preference to keep them private...His sex life, however, was his business. Now he's dead, it's no-one's business." wasn't so much a moral judgement as pure common sense. Who cares what politicians do, with whom, and how, unless they are hypocritically trying to prevent others from doing the same? It should, really, be no-one's business.
"If you follow the link to the original NS piece it's matched with a Peter Tatchell one stating that outing "homophobic gays" is a moral duty."
Hmm, and I had a little bit of respect for Tatchell for the 'confronting Mugabe' affair. Have just lost it now...
Posted by: JuliaM | Apr 25, 2007 5:08:48 PM
LBS: Yes, it's a moral assertion. And? Are morals a bad thing now? Yours in confusion, TP.
Posted by: Tom Paine | Apr 25, 2007 6:27:29 PM
Now that I've read the claim that Ted Heath was gay, what am I supposed to do about it?
Posted by: Bob B | Apr 25, 2007 8:50:52 PM
Why not... George Bush is gay and his dad, and most of the so-called elite, plenty of male prostitutes testify to having worked at Bohemian Grove (holiday camp for world leaders)
Posted by: David | May 15, 2008 8:31:34 AM
