In which The Gay Recluse updates his informal but rather telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, the weekly Style Section (of The Times) column in which openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship.

This week’s piece: May I Have This Dance? by Owen Powell

Subject: A soldier in Iraq dreams of Natalie Portman. We enjoyed this essay, in which the author reveals a thoughtful and romantic heart beneath the necessarily hard exterior of a soldier. For our gay version, in which he dreams of Johnny Depp, click here.

We thought it was interesting that Daniel Jones would select this essay as a winner of his “college essay” contest — given that the writer seems to be in his late 20s and is enrolled at an “online institution” — which seems to indicate an admirable willingness on Jones’ part to stretch the rules, and yet he seems so reluctant to do the same with regard to gay-authored essays.

Filed under: Straight Man on “Relationships”

The updated tally (or why we feel like animals in the zoo): 7 out of 179 columns by openly gay writers; 2 out of 179 on female gay relationships; 0 out of 179 on male gay relationships. In what is arguably the “gayest” section of The Times, more women have written about gay men than gay men have.

Straight Woman on Relationships iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii ii (42)
Straight Woman on Family iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii i (36)
Straight Woman on “Looking for Love” iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii (35)
Straight Woman on Breaking Up iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiii iii (23)
Straight Man on Relationships iiiii iiiii ii (12)
Straight Man on Breakup iiiiii (6)
Straight Woman on Gay Men iiiii i (6)
Straight Man on Family iiiii i(6)
Straight Man on “Looking for Love” iiiii (5)
Gay Man on Family ii (2)
Gay Woman on Relationship ii (2)
Gay Woman on Family i (1)
Gay Man on Self-Hatred i (1)
Gay Man on Prom Date i (1)
Ambiguous/Nurse on Drugs i (1)