Is there anybody out there who, like me, is put off by the thought of gay Cowboys in a movie tipped to sweep the Oscars?
For the record, I'm not a homophobe, and just as horrified when George W. Bush is described as a cowboy.
My first crush was the green-eyed gunfighter Sudden, and to this day a Winchester makes me weak at the knees. JT Edson and Louis L'Amour lasso'd me out the concrete canyons of South Bombay, to a world of smoky saloons and stagecoaches, mesas and buttes, mustangs and appaloosas, and tough guys who swore by honour and friendship.
To imagine the possibility that the Ysabel Kid and Dusty Fog were exchanging kisses while dispensing justice on the frontier.... why that's as heartbreaking and disillusioning as what society dishes out to the homosexuals in our midst.
The powers that be (doubtless Western novel buffs like me) agree, and have still not allowed Brokeback Mountain to be screened here.
For now I can continue to believe in Santa Claus, anti-ageing creams and straight cowboys.