Gay Icons

As I was alighting from the tube at Tottenham Court Road on Wednesday, posters galore for the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery accosted me. Phew – deus ex machina – I don't have to go shopping for clothes. Or shoes. There is a god! I duly headed off, handed over a fiver and wandered around looking at pics of famous fags and people who are well, iconic, to fags. It was one of the few times being in a gallery that I haven't enjoyed eyeing up the patrons, a long-cherished tradition of mine. Even less alluring than the patrons was the exhibition herself. Honestly, it was just a collection of pics with some text justifying its participation in this benighted event. I wandered around reading the texts which were as a dry as a nun's twat, and glancing at the pictures which in most cases were spectacularly dull. Not a hint of fun, irony, sexiness.

A day or three later a seed was planted in my mind and it continues to grow. How about creating my own Gay Icons exhibition for Mezipatra? How I would do it:

• poster sized glossy pictures - all the same size
  
• lesser known gays worth knowing about
  
• quirky texts
  
• sexy pictures
  
• shirtless Obama and Putin – strutting their stuff.
  
• pictures of famous gays at different times in their lives
  
• A different name for the exhibition