DEAR MADAM - As a former member of the Loyal Orange Institution of England and a gay man I take great exception to Stuart Brooker’s homophobic remarks.

I find it particularly galling and offensive that Brooker and so many self-styled “Unionists” are prepared to chant “civil and religious liberty for all and special privileges for none” and condone permanent compulsory coalition government with Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly on one hand, whilst condemning love between consenting adults and denying same-sex couples the right to marry one another, on the other.

Whilst acknowledging that “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), may one ask which is the greater abomination, sharing executive and legislative powers with the enemies of Ulster and the Union - with their hatred of all things British - or celebrating love between consenting adults?

If, in future elections, such homophobic and transphobic Unionists lost control of local authorities and/or the Northern Ireland Assembly to Sinn Fein they will only have themselves to blame. But, as an Englishman by birth and an Ulsterman by adoption, I for one will not forgive them if, in doing so, they set in motion the disintegration of the United Kingdom I love so much.

Yours faithfully, CHRISTOPHER LUKE