I NOTE that Stonewall has awarded Cardinal Keith O'Brien its Bigot of the Year award.

What a delightful expression of Enlightenment values ("Cardinal bigot award row", The Herald, November 2). I am sure His Eminence will take great comfort in the words of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."

Perhaps the great and the good who made this decision might remember some other words of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 7 verse 1: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

John McArthur,

131 Crowhill Street, Glasgow.

STONEWALL may see fit to label Cardinal O'Brien as Bigot of the Year. Whilst my label is more succinct, it is one with which I am sure he would have no dispute: "Christian".

Such gay (and, to some, offensive) badinage is part and parcel of everyday debate and nobody should be immune. Especially the Cardinal.

John Hein,

Editor,

ScotsGay Magazine, 78 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh.

ON recent visits to Glasgow, I have noticed a number of buses carrying a new advertisement for Stonewall on the side. This proclaims: "Some people are gay. Get over it."

The first part is, of course, perfectly accurate –as far as it goes.

According to a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in 2010, only 1.5% of British respondents identified themselves as homosexual/lesbian/ bisexual.

This is, of course "some" but a very small "some" indeed.

Even if one were to allow that there were those who, for whatever reason, decided not to "out" themselves, and doubled the figure, it would only account for 3% of the population.

Perhaps someone could fund an alternative advertisement that would say, simply: "The vast majority are straight. Accept it."

As things stand, and on a variety of issues, Stonewall and its supporters appear to be a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, or, at least, endeavouring to do so.

Rev C Brian Ross,

253 Shields Road,

Motherwell.