Lord Lieutenant should back Smyrl

YOUR report (News, December 4) notes that, after receiving an open letter from Steven Smyrl, regarding the role of one of her deputies in a Presbyterian Church Commission (which Mr Smyrl claims publicly demeaned him as a gay man), a spokesman for the Lord Lieutenant of Belfast, Fionnuala Jay-O’Boyle CBE, said “it would not be appropriate to comment”.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to question why a member of an organisation which has chosen to openly denigrate the lives of one of the minorities in our society should be rewarded with any role at all within Her Majesty’s Lieutenancy for the city of Belfast?

After its egregious decision in June 2018 to eject gays and their children, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has shown itself to be an abusive organisation, which, far from contributing meaningfully to society, is actually damaging its cohesion and fabric.

A more appropriate response from the Lord Lieutenant would be confirmation that she doesn’t endorse the Presbyterian Church’s homophobia and that the Rev Dr Frank Sellar will no longer serve as one of her deputies.

PROFESSOR

PAUL CARMICHAEL Newtownabbey, Co Antrim

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