MY goodness, don’t some subjects stir up the heat?

I don’t usually get involved with letter to letter banter. However, Robert Aston and F Isherwood were certainly aroused by my simple request for equality of treatment for honest human beings, including gay folk (“Gay couples easy target”, March 20).

I would certainly wish the Muslim faith to involve sexual equality, Mr Isherwood. It just so happened that at that time it was the Christians who were getting huffy.

Robert Aston cherry-picked my letter to reveal a non-existent anti-Catholic message. He chose to ignore my inclusion of the Anglican Bishop of York and African clergy of any denomination. I try to keep my letters concise, you can’t include everybody.

I am against prejudice. I wish for a world of earned equal rights — race, religion, sexuality, hair colour, wealth, occupation, choice of music, to name but a few.

Throughout British history various groups have taken their turn to be persecuted, including Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, those of no faith.

Thank goodness that today we have headlines and pastoral letters, not the stake.

I expect criminals to lose some rights, temporarily or permanently, depending on the severity of the crime or willingness to reform.

Equality must be earned, we’re all in it together.

Let us stop picking targets. We are all open to criticism. Let us guard against a fear of difference and a fear of being bottom of the hierarchy.

An old Spinners song (yes, I did attend a couple of concerts) about hierarchy ended with the lines “Hey-ho, fancy that, when the only consolation is to kick the cat”.

Ah, animal rights! Perhaps reserved for another letter!

David Sharples Tarbet Drive Breightmet