Our Evenings

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, racism, and antigay bias.

Dave realizes in his mid-teens that he is attracted to boys and men. This becomes apparent when he vacations in Devon with his mother and Mrs. Esme Croft. He is attracted to the waiter Marco and a man named Ollie whom he sees on the beach. Also, the graffiti he sees in the public toilets and the realization that men go there for sex with each other opens up a previously undreamt-of realm: the existence of a gay subculture.

Dave accepts his sexual orientation from the beginning; he never questions his desires or feels conflicted about them. However, he is not open about it to others at first since attitudes toward being gay in the 1960s are not tolerant; casual anti-gay bias pervades Dave’s world as men call each other antigay slurs as insults. Dave holds back from revealing his sexuality to others; he would sooner be thought of as different because of his racial heritage than because of his sexuality. When he does openly state his sexual orientation, it is to his mother and Esme, who are completely supportive since they are in a same-gender relationship themselves.