This is rather telling:
"What can we glean from the novel about its author? I mention Killian, a gay character who marries his partner and proclaims that gay marriage is great because it shows that the nation doesn’t hate all homosexuals. Congratulations are in order: Norton married his partner, Jonothan, in the spring and I suggest Killian sounds like Norton.
He muses: “At my age there’s a nostalgia for when [being gay] was worse. When clubs were down weird alleys. But that’s ridiculous because it was shit. You were beaten up, but it felt special. The two givens were that you weren’t getting married or having children. Being clandestine was exciting and fun.”"
Really?? The days he's referring to are the Section 28 days if I'm not much mistaken. Those days were "exciting and fun"??!
He comes across as simply another male who's either not bothered to engage with the issues or who maybe has and knows what we know but is pretending he doesn't see it. He seems OK with pulling up the ladder behind him, unfussed about what happens to fellow homosexuals - lesbians.