Gays can do without fairweather friends

What an extraordinarily nasty little attack Carol Sarler directed at the Stonewall survey ('Come on, boys, don't whinge', Comment, last week). While Carol might think that wearing the odd red ribbon will achieve the end of homophobia, Stonewall has spent years supporting the lesbian and gay community full time. This appears to be a case of bourgeois fashion fatigue: once it was cool to have gay mates (only boys though, according to Carol), now no longer. Yes, Stonewall's research methodology was simplistic, but the intention had integrity. For many lesbians and gay men, particularly young ones, the world is still a cold and cruel place.
Sally R Munt

Carol Sarler gets it about as wrong as she could. Dripping with old-time stereotype-laden sarcasm the concept of heterosexuals ('us') supporting the cause of gay emancipation is treated with impatience like a fussy 1990s fashion item looking a bit stale. The guilt-ridden conditional support of fairweather 'liberal media' friends is pretty worthless.
David Griffiths
Oxford

As a gay man, I welcomed Carol Sarler's piece. Having had to cope with Aids over the last 20 years, gay men can probably cope with Anne Robinson too.
David Johnson
London NW5

Carol Sarler has misread the point of Stonewall's research into how the BBC portrays lesbian and gay people. The barely concealed threat Sarler offers as 'advice' to lesbians and gay men - that we 'truculent poofs' should lighten up, put up, and shut up... or beware! - suggests Stonewall should next consider commissioning a report on how prevalent homophobia still is in 'liberal' newspapers.
Richard Smith
Brighton

Speaking as a gay man (lisping with excessive gesticulation), I'd like to say how much I agree with Carol Sarler. Stonewall, along with the great Peter Tatchell, has done much to advance the cause of equal rights for gays but when it starts analysing BBC TV output for homophobic jokes it really is having a laugh.

If every minority did the same, the BBC's comedy output would be decimated. As for Stonewall's demand that 6 per cent of quiz-show contestants be gay, I'm reminded of what the grandmother of all queens, Quentin Crisp, said: 'Television has so much spare time that everyone will be on it in the end.' If the BBC becomes any more 'inclusive', Broadcasting House will sink under the weight of its guilty conscience.

Come on, guys and gals, the one thing us homos are renowned for is having a sense of humour.
Tim Fountain
Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France

Professor of media and cultural studies University of Sussex, Brighton