Sherlock Fic rec, and a few thoughts on being out.
On Friday, I decided to give this story a try:
http://madlorific.livejournal.com/35273.html
and was glad I did. It is AU where Sherlock and John are film actors and fall in love while working on a film together. The fic is notable for a lot of things, including really detailed settings and insights into film production and the Hollywood system, reminiscent of clio_jlh's Our Life is Not a Movie, or Maybe ( http://archiveofourown.org/works/130637/chapters/185961). It hit my buttons -- the characters fall in love slowly and don't really realize it and they finally get together and it is a great explosion of love and UST-resolution and they end up on that timeless high plateau of being with each other and in love and in which there isn't any great distinction between sex and mundane tasks like making breakfast -- it is all tied up together. Ah, being in love is grand....
It also talks a lot about the coming out process and gossip and what does it mean to be officially out (apparently you have to make a clear statement to a journalist at a respectable publication for it to count, or release an official statement). In timing, I ended up reading those chapters at the same time I read the news about Zachary Quinto finally coming out officially (via a nice side-comment in a longer interview on other topics). It left me frustrated and with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think that anyone who doesn't lie or try to deceive (by having fake girlfriends, etc) and makes his/her sexuality clear to those to whom it is relevant (family, friends, potential partners, etc) is out. I also have a preference for people being out about their relationships rather than their sexual orientation/identity- ie, I am married to X (who happens to be the same sex as myself), or Y and I are living together and coparenting three kids, or Z and I are in a serious relationship. I don't give any special value to other people's relationships that are in the early stages -- it doesn't matter to me if two people are friends, lovers, whatever, not my business until the relationship is serious. I hate the elevation of the sexual/romantic relationships above friendship that that entails ("just friends" is such a stupid phrase -- friends are important). I guess that reflects a world view of mine that people should respect all the chosen close relationships of others, whether they are friends/lovers/spouses/parents/siblings.
On the other hand, given the world we live in, I do wish that everyone in the public eye would be officially out. Whether I think it is reasonable or not, actors and politicians are role models and can really provide encouragement to others who are struggling. A lot of people in the wider population are oblivious and just assume everyone is straight and they need to hear a wide variety of people explicitly state "I'm gay" to broaden their world view. Also, if everyone comes out, maybe this crazy system will change. I hope that in 10 years we just laugh and laugh at the idea that somehow a gay person had to make an official announcement about his/her sexuality.