Personal freedom

Richard Lucas (Letters, 30 August) claims “homosexual sex correlates with many negative physical and mental health outcomes”, yet supplies no evidence to support that spurious claim. The reason is, of course, because no such evidence exists. As far as physical health is concerned, if he is referring to sexually transmitted infections, there is a higher incidence of STIs among heterosexual people than among the LGBT community. In 2009, 54 per cent of HIV infections were from heterosexual intercourse (Health Protection Agency). Meanwhile, chlamydia is the most common STI in the UK, with 217,570 cases in 2009 (Family Planning Agency).
By The Newsroom
Published 2nd Sep 2013, 01:00 BST

Even the heterosexual 
marriages/relationships Mr Lucas favours can be harmful to health, with almost 60,000 cases of domestic violence in 2011-12.

As to mental health, there are happy and unhappy heterosexual people, just as there are in the LGBT community. If anything, where any LGBT person is more likely to face mental health issues, it is due to stress and depression caused by societal pressures and homophobia.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Lucas does “not believe that young children should be prompted to question their own sexuality”. I could not agree more – and that includes LGBT children, who are made to feel like outcasts just for being who they are.

Leslie John Thomson

Moredunvale Green

Edinburgh