Whether or not that is true, most heterosexuals that I know wouldn't dream of voting for the British National Party, which has had past and probably current affiliation with racist/xenophobic groups such as the National Front.

This is what's bothering me, I think. If it were just a lack of "joined up thinking", the inability to see racial and sexual equality as based on the same principles, I'd grudgingly accept that some gay people don't make the connection between their hard-won rights and those of other minorities. But this isn't normal, really.

So yeah, while I suspect that some of this is just over-compensating for insecurities about one's masculinity, it's severe overcompensation, and totally unnecessary. I dunno, maybe a few pathetic little twinks on the site will be turned on by it, but if that's the case then I hope these wannabe skinheads find a new hetero-stereotype to subvert/aspire to before the next election.

I don't understand the appeal of skinheadism, to be honest. I thought we were onto a winner with cowboys.

I think you're probably idealising gay people in the way I used to idealise students, despite knowing bucketfuls of public-school educated politically apathetic fools. It's painful to admit, but I even did the same for everyone liked the same kind of music as me, which I had to abandon each time the artist's fanbase reached critical mass (somewhere just above cult level).

So the lesson is, most gay men are probably as politically-aware as the rest of Britain, they just happen to fancy other guys. The rise of the BNP is a country-wide problem.

Frustrating, isn't it.