LGBTs must tolerate views of other people

WITH reference to Malachai O’Hara (Write Back, February 14), I would like to ask him if he has ever spoken to someone who has come out of the LGBT lifestyle and has no regrets?

There are many who have done just that, some of whom are now happily married to women and others who are content to be celibate, as they realise that is God’s will for them.

His letter seems full of indignation, yet it also contains contradictions. For example, how is it all right to change from heterosexual to homosexual, yet not the reverse? And how does he square the ‘once gay, always gay’ mantra with gay icons like Peter Tatchell saying sexuality is fluid?

Also, has he ever spoken to Core Issues staff to find out what they actually do, rather than repeating the canard about it being about a ‘gay cure’, which it does not set out to be? And why is he so scared of letting anyone hear a different story?

The suicide risk he quotes is also open to question: not the numbers, but the reasons behind it, as these include the fact some gay people were abused by older men when they were young, which left them vulnerable and confused, and others still in the gay community have admitted that the gay lifestyle has not brought them the happiness they thought it would. So, it is not a black-and-white issue.

The truly dangerous thing about his letter is that he says LGBT people “won’t tolerate” views which differ from theirs. May I remind him that, in a democracy, people have the right to free speech and conscience without threats like this.

STELLA WILSON Tandragee, Co Armagh