"… and are also much better educated than I"

Nice of you to say Ake, but I'm not at all educated! 3 'O' Levels, one art and one graphic design vocational qualification from college and years of pulling myself up by my bootstraps meaning I will starting a higher degree on New Year's Day (self-funded, vertebrate palaeontology). No undergrad degree, just managed to get in (not so easy even if I am paying).

"I would like to see you tackle the negative aspects of male homosexual behaviour…."

"Negative aspects" is simply a value judgement. There is a biological reason for what is a variation of normal sexual behaviour, and however that is interpreted by individuals is, in a sense, irrelevant as it doesn't alter the facts of the situation.

However to us it does matter, but should it? Personally as long as it's legal and people are happy I can't see what it has to do with me, or why I should oppose it. I don't believe that homosexual behaviour is any more or less 'bad' than the behaviour of the tens of thousands drinking themselves into oblivion several nights a week and acting promiscuously - and as long as it doesn't affect any innocent people then that behaviour is of no concern to me. Of course as a society we pay a price for this behaviour in terms of taxation, perhaps a degree of intimidation going to certain places at night or a sense of disgust at the mess left the next morning. But it's part of who we are as society, and so is people's sexual behaviour.

So there's a certain degree of subjectivity to how we approach issues like this. Essentially it's about freedom of choice and so I fully support gay marriage, gay clergy and gay anything else. There's strength in diversity and we all have something to contribute.

There's so much more to worry about, like the Creationist fundamentalists who want to fill our children's heads with falsehoods, lies and misrepresentations. They are a concern.