An open letter to The Whitstable Times

Following the publication of your recent letter about Stonewall's advertising campaign I would like to take my right to respond.

I would like to start by saying that if the person writing the letter in question has the right to offend then certainly I have the right to be offended. As it happens I am less offended by the content of his letter (I live in Kent after all and encounter such homophobic views regularly) than I am by your papers chosen header.

Why am I so offended by 'Take heed, all you homosexual sinners'? Well to me it is deliberately designed to be provocative and if it was genuinely innocuous why not apologise instantly for any offence caused? Instead the diligent owner of your Twitter feed has consistently defended it as 'not your papers view' - clearly recognising it as an offensive view to hold! More importantly we seem to live in a society where you can say what you like as "freedom of speech". I'm not agin this freedom but I am against the freedom to express views which cause damage and harm. Racism, anti-disabled views, sexism, homophobia all fall in to this category. And unchecked they cause untold damage to our society. Did you know that 55% of young people say they've experienced homophobic bullying and suicide rates amongst the LGBT community are well above the national average?

Are these two things unrelated? I think not? Am I being extreme? I think not.

So yes Mr D Bryson has the right to his opinion and yes in our free society you have the right to publish that opinion, but why do it with such a damaging headline - why not simply state "Stonewall slogan upsets residents"?

In my ideal utopian world the letter wouldn't be published, Mr Bryson would hold his view but we wouldn't live in a society that tolerates and allowed such views to be expressed publicly - after all what is he spreading other than hatred by his extreme statements? And my message to any young people out there that have been upset and damaged by his views and your headline is - it's okay, I'm gay, I'm proud to be gay and you know what to the world - some people ARE gay so get over it!

Yours sincerely