Letter: Gay icons

Margaret Thatcher one of "the biggest gay icons around"? Has Mark Simpson gone mad? His article on Diana, "Glamorous, tragic, a drama queen - but never camp" (7 September) was just an excuse to rubbish anything that might be described as "gay culture". His analysis of what constitutes a "gay icon" was a masterpiece of muddled thinking. To dismiss Judy Garland, whose death sparked the Stonewall riots, as a self-pitying, bourbon-soaked tragedy queen, while pronouncing Thatcher, the architect of Clause 28, a gay icon is offensive and, frankly, stupid.

And if he believes that Diana was "never camp", he obviously never met her.

James Gardiner

Brighton, East Sussex