Letter: Straw angers gays

Sir: I remember sitting on a gay rights platform with the Home Secretary when he agreed with a member of the audience that sexual orientation is fixed and not a choice, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard his latest blunder on the Today programme.

"If two adults want to be gay that is entirely their own affair," he said, before proving the contrary to be true by telling listeners that the adoption of children by gay couples is not "generally approved of" by the Government.

No sooner has Mr Straw finished making promises to the gay lobby than he is back supporting the family values campaigners who support prejudice and discrimination. Will the Government never tire of trying to appease both sides while blindly antagonising both?

CHRIS MORRIS

London W3

Sir: Jack Straw suggested on Radio 4's Today programme that "if two adults want to be gay, that's entirely their affair". Odd! I thought there was no choice in the matter. I certainly don't remember being asked if I wanted to be gay: I just found myself so, just as I must have once woken up to the fact that I was male and had brown hair.

Andrew Armitage

Whitland, Dyfed