Letter: Tatchell the martyr

Sir: How ironical that you should be giving such massive coverage to the Oscar Wilde monument (which is long overdue), whilst using your editorial to describe Peter Tatchell's protest against Archbishop Carey as "childish and counterproductive, fixing in the public mind the image of gay rights campaigners as irresponsible extremists" (1 December).

The Church of England, under Carey's leadership, continues to preach homophobia and cause misery to gay clergy and gay Christians. In the wider social context, such prejudice voiced by the established church underpins street attacks against lesbians and gay men and justifies discrimination in the workplace, over housing and in most areas of civil law and within the criminal justice system.

I wonder if in a hundred years time we will be raising a statue to Tatchell. He is a saint, one of freedom's warriors battling against prejudice and discrimination,

CHRIS FARRAH-MILLS

Hove, East Sussex