Letter: Gays need not fear growing old

Sir: Your correspondents (16 December) have missed the point of the Anti-Gay debate. The issue is how to make gay/homosexual life meaningful. It is to do with ageing in a subculture that is dominated by (white middle- class) men who seem to spend their whole lives in discos, bars and gyms.

Mainstream gay culture's reaction to the issues Anti-Gay addresses is understandable because it reminds these folks that life under 30 is not infinite and that the failure to provide meaning for ourselves for the time after 30 is crucial.

There are too many young people who have decided to "live fast and die young" because they cannot fathom the idea of being gay and old. Aids educators will know what I am talking about. The point is not getting a life but getting a meaningful life. Current gay culture effectively creates a void filled with drugs, discos and gyms but fails to address these issues.

Despite this, I'll stick to being gay because I will not accept the box the medical profession invented for people like myself some hundred years ago.

UDO SCHUKLENK

Preston, Lancashire