Letter: Lesbians and gays on the march

Sir: Bill Clinton has failed the gay community. He made promises on which he is now soft-pedalling. Why should we not be made aware of this, and as forcefully as possible? Being nice to bigots does not make them nice; it only makes them feel that they are going to win. Mr Clinton is being nice to bigots. Would a man like this, who so easily folds over, have brought about the desegregation of US schools?

Sometimes justice is better served by what may appear to some, at the time, as counter-productive action. Those Los Angeles policemen would never have stood for retrial had the black community behaved nicely. We will never get our rights if we do not fight for them. And if we fail to keep fighting, we will lose the few we have - as has been shown by the discriminatory, establishment legislation in some American states, and over here.

And surveys? According to reliable surveys, we should be under a Labour government. Statisticians know only what people are prepared to tell them. I doubt that the majority of gay people will ever feel safe enough to be open; thus they will never appear in these surveys, and so the figure will always be lower than in reality it is.

In the end, however, it is immaterial how large or small we are as a group. We have rights, and if we are denied them, we have the right to fight for them, no matter how tetchy this makes you (leading article, 26 April).

Yours faithfully,

RORY LAMBE

Ashford, Kent

26 April