Well done, Julie Burchill, for drawing attention to the deep concern shared by many about the level of funding to voluntary and community organisations in Brighton and Hove (February 13).

Unfortunately, Julie seems to be grossly misinformed about the needs and views of the gay community.

Until only two years ago, Brighton and Hove City Council made more money from the one gay community organisation it funded than it gave to it in the first place (a measly £2,500) by charging business rates on its rented premises.

The council seemed to operate a hands-off policy when it came to the gay community from as far back as 1991, when it came in for criticism from a homophobic Press for supporting Gay Pride.

As to Julie's comment about gay men not using the NHS, do the lives of the many hundreds of gay men who have died in Brighton from HIV-related illness mean nothing to her?

What about the 700 or so gay men currently living with HIV who literally rely on the NHS to keep them alive?

If she took the time to read the local gay Press or speak to lesbian or gay organisations, she would quickly learn the views of a few gay "media luvvies" do not represent the ordinary lesbians and gay men who live in the city.

For several years, G-Scene magazine has campaigned against the poor level of funding to gay and other voluntary-sector organisations and has questioned the amount of money going to arts organisations and what we get back from them. In a recent edition, its editorial was given over to criticising the cuts in funding to organisations, including the Rape Crisis Centre.

I invite Julie to visit the lesbian and gay organisations which are dealing with the day-to-day concerns of the gay community - teenagers who are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, gay men and lesbians who are beaten in the streets, people arriving in Brighton and Hove with no housing and no job looking for somewhere to belong and feel safe, people with mental health problems made worse by homophobic professionals and, finally, older lesbians and gay men facing isolation and loneliness.

It's a shame Julie felt it necessary to pick out one group in the community for cheap, snide asides, when we should all be working together.

Let's hope as the debate moves on we do so on the basis of equality and respect, not stereotypes and misinformation.

-Paul R Martin, Broad Street, Brighton