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Great Britain: Scandals Erupt
Over 4 Cabinet Ministers

Prime Minister's Government
Being Smeared as a 'Gay Mafia'

One Minister Resigns�Homosexuality
Turned into a Political Issue

By Corrine Hicks

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown

London� Outing has become the weapon not of gay activists but of opportunists in the media and of political rivals seeking to destroy through innuendoes. Prime Minister Tony Blair's Agricultural Minister, Nick Brown voluntarily outed himself last weekend, one of four outings that have turned the number of Britain's prominent homosexual politicians into a growing public scandal.

Brown, who had stood to be outed by the nation's infamous tabloids, beat them to the draw. His homosexuality had been widely known but had previously received no official confirmation. Brown moved to tell the truth about himself following a scandal affecting a fellow minister, Ron Davies, who'd been robbed during the previous week in London's Clapham Common, known to be a dangerous gay cruising area.

The Minister of Agriculture had long been subject to rumors and innuendoes and in spite of Britain's reputed reputation for protecting privacy, homophobic reactions from its tabloid press have now become endemic.

The Daily Telegraph pontificated that "most people still feel an instinctive revulsion towards the idea of homosexuality" and that homosexuality is "always a sad thing". Another homophobic publication, The Sun, demanded to know if Britain is, in fact, being run by a "Gay Mafia�a closed world of men with a mutual self-interest".

Brown's outing of himself was immediately followed by the conservative media's sudden focus on one of Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest confidants, Peter Mandelson, Britain's powerful Secretary of Trade and Industry.

Privately, Prime Minister Blair reacted sympathetically to the revelation of Davies' homosexuality and had shunned public commentary. The subterfuges that Davies�who has resigned-- was said to proffer were, understandably, because the Cabinet Minister had hoped to protect his family and most especially his young daughter, from the revelations about his night-time cruising habits.

Instead, a "cover up" is now being charged against the Blair government and has mushroomed into political "concerns" about how many gay males make up the Prime Minister's Cabinet.

Peter Mandelson, also New Labour's new "kingmaker" has supplanted Davies as a symbol of the nation's homophobic anxiety after being ostentatiously outed on television by an openly gay journalist Matthew Parris, a former Member of Parliament who had himself remained closeted while active in politics. Parris now works for the prestigious Times of London and for the well-known scandal tabloid, The Sun.

Minister of Trade Peter Mandelson

Parris described Mandelson as "obviously" gay on the BBC's Newsnight. Though Mandelson's homosexuality had previously been noted, it has only become a matter of controversy in the wake of the Davies resignation. Mandelson is the only politician who has been invited to celebrate Prince Charles' 50th birthday next week. He is said to have played a prominent role in "remodeling" the Prince following a spate of damaging publicity that had affected the Royal Family in recent years.