I talk a lot of sh-t about the British monarchy, but I’ll give the current Windsors some credit for one thing: they don’t seem to be homophobic bigots. Their bigotry is reserved for other issues, but King Charles, his sons and the current crop of working royals are all okay-to-good on LGBTQ issues. King Charles has always had gay friends. A huge chunk of William’s staff is made up of gay men. Harry has plenty of gay friends too. Why are we talking about this during Pride month? Well, the British actor Stephen Fry was recently chatting about royals and LGBTQ issues on a podcast, and he had some interesting things to say. He’s not spilling royal tea, he’s just shooting the sh-t and giving a little history lesson.
An openly gay king one day could raise “constitutional issues” but would not be impossible, Stephen Fry has claimed. The broadcaster and author, who is friendly with the royal family, suggested that the concept could be a possibility in the future if the issue of producing an heir was dealt with.
Speaking on the Just For Variety podcast, he said: “I think it would raise constitutional issues in terms of the heir. That’s the only boring nonsense about kingship, is that you’re supposed to have an heir, or as the horrible phrase goes, an heir and a spare.”
The 66-year-old TV personality added that the Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex are “very gay-friendly” thanks to the tolerant attitude of their father, the King. The broadcaster explained: “Believe me, they are very gay-friendly and charming. Yeah, they’re part of their generation. And they grew up with it because of their father. You know, their father was great friends with, for example, [Sir] John Richardson, the Picasso biographer. He and his boyfriend used to stay with the King. And, you know, they were friendly with them both. They had absolutely no issues.”
Fry added that Prince William and Harry’s attitude to homosexuality is very different to their royal ancestors. He said: “Each generation, including those two princes, is so much more, you know because they had a great-great-grandfather, George V. And if you wanted to know what summed up the casual and hideous homophobia of Britain and probably most of Europe and America at that time, there was a member of the family, the Duke of Westminster, who was about to be arrested and he escaped to France. And someone broke the news to the King because the Duke of Westminster was a friend of the King. And they said, ‘Oh, have you heard that Lord What’s His Name has gone to France because of that [homosexuality]?’ And the King’s words were just to say very coldly, ‘I thought men like that shot themselves?’. Isn’t that the coldest remark you’ve ever heard? And that was William and Harry’s great, great, grandfather.”
That is a cold remark and it speaks to how drastically attitudes have changed in just a couple of generations. The youths don’t know, honestly. It’s an annual Pride Month conversation, with young queer kids being shocked that homosexual acts used to be criminalized and that there was a whole culture of lavender marriages and underground gay scenes (because they had to stay hidden and in the closet). Stonewall happened in my mom’s generation, you know? George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign hinged on gay-bashing.
As for what Fry says about the possibility of a gay king or queen… I think it could happen too, but I think what will happen before that is someone in the line of succession (but not a direct heir) coming out as gay. I’m sure that will happen in my lifetime.
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