For Monitoring Purposes

When I gave up my teaching post last year, finances became tight but manageable. The members of Salem Chapel generously increased my stipend some months later which means I can now pay for unexpected bills as well those for which I budget. I am still on the lookout for a part time job, not so much for the money, but for the opportunities of getting out and meeting people. It has been quite an eye-opener.

I applied for a post at a local library, for example, as an assistant. During the application, I had to inform my potential employer whether I was gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual. What difference does it make? Why are my sexual proclivities any of their concern? I was applying for a job in a library, not a brothel.

Doubtless, management will say it is purely for ‘monitoring purposes’. But why are they monitoring this kind of information? What library staff do in their spare time and the people with whom they engage are private affairs.  For its talk of respect and equality, current British culture is obsessed with sex, and it is deeply disturbing.