Dear Oscar,

You would think that since you were around things might have changed! There is now all sorts of terminology which would be unfamiliar to you, so let me try to explain.

In the parlance of today you would be classified (which you were not in your own times) as ‘homosexual’ (in a strangely diametric opposition to ‘heterosexual’), ‘gender-fluid’ (there are some images of you presenting as a woman, and of course many as a man), ‘queer’ (in that you subverted the sexualised economy of your day), ‘gay’ (again opposed diametrically to ‘straight’), ‘cis-male’ (born with the characteristics and outward signifiers of masculinity), ‘white’ (there is no hint of any other racial component in your genetic make up), ‘privileged’ (you were not poor, not ever; real poverty would not have afforded you rich friends), and, in all probability, effete (with a hint to the effeminate).

All of these things brought about your absolute condemnation in social and even political terms, but nowadays there would be some level of spoken, and even statutory acceptance. There would be the brazen face of social acceptance made visible across all media, and yet woven into the fabric of that acceptance questions would be raised, moralisms promoted, both subtle and unsubtle judgements cast. And the great organs of states, legal systems, statutory regulations, and of course levels of social opprobrium, often not needed to be uttered at all, kept behind closed doors and lace curtains, would still marshall your progress through life.

Oscar, you did find a place within your society which you occupied with brilliance for a short while. Now too you would be able to achieve something similar, but so much has had to be fought for, so much petitioning, challenging, arguing, and still doors are kept firmly closed, access to the table denied, your place at the party proscribed within limited confines. For you, I know, it was actual confinement; but do not think for a moment that there are not places in the world where a worse fate would await you.

I pray for you, dear Oscar, as I pray for all the others.

Your friend, and my own,

Algernon B. Duffoure.