PART OF THE CROWD

This is not a place for the paranoid.

If you're different, many will look at you and won't be ashamed of it either. Far from being rude, it's a reaction born from curiosity. The majority of people I've met so far are very polite and welcoming. They will come half way towards you should you need them to - for most that comes with the sense of personal pride I've talked about before. And yet, particularly for the older generation it seems, if one is obviously from another country, you're the object of curiosity. The population of Hong Kong is 98% Chinese, so as a lanky Caucasian, I'm in the minority.

I'm no stranger to being in the minority. Being gay, I can easily take an outsider's point of view on subjects that a lot of my peers - until recent years - couldn't. The war between Church and State in the UK over the subject of Gay Marriage has been a contentious issue of late, but for those of us who remember when being homosexual in the UK was less open and understood, the general positive reaction to the idea serves as a telling barometer of how much attitudes to gay people in England has changed, even the last ten years.

Being gay, by it's very nature, is an internal thing. It's to do with genetic make up, thoughts and attitudes and lifestyle. I've been on the receiving end of homophobia in my time. A swift punch from a chav and an old landlady telling me I was going to Hell on Judgement Day to name but two examples. And that's not even touching on the homophobia within the gay community.

If anything, I've been on the receiving end of more anti-Semitism than anti-Gay behaviour. Being called a "Jewish bastard" or being referred to using an Arab derogatory term is, at the very least, shocking. The irony is, I'm not even Jewish. I just have a passing resemblance to a younger David Badiell circa The Mary Whitehouse Experience, albeit without the 1990s curtains hairstyle. I've never begrudged people's curiosity - it's natural to wonder about people not like you - but the exercising of ignorance through abuse has always seemed incongruous.

The breeding of race hate in the UK, not least through the insipid tabloid press, is a cause for concern. There is racism here too, but I've been told - like England - it's origins are through ignorance and misinformation, possibly the symptoms of an insular society.

If you stick out in a crowd, it's a humbling experience, and one that I wonder if more people should go through. Perhaps a way to fight the insecurities of race relations is a touch of humility and fostering the ability to step outside of one's own castle once in a while.

Like a man who goes abroad but will only eat egg 'n' chips, you have to ask - what's the point?