Following recent articles in various local publications, I have to ask why Brighton and Hove City Council is obsessed with homosexual issues?

First, in The Argus, I read about the proposal to make the St James's Street area, Kemp Town, into a "gay village".

Then Councillor Nimrod Ping, in a letter to The Argus, patronisingly wrote: "I am surprised there are still some people who can't get it that the gay village, which has been a long time in the making, has arrived and is here to stay."

A browse of The Leader revealed February has been declared "gay history month" and there is a related exhibition of photographs at Brighton Museum.

The Argus then reported another council proposal of pink plaques for local gay celebrities, to establish a "gay heritage" trail.

I'm not homophobic and support civil partnerships. I know and have worked with homosexuals and have always found them to be caring individuals, like most members of the community.

What I object to is homosexuality being promoted, which is what the council seems set on doing.

I'm tired of Brighton being known as the gay capital of Europe. Why should we encourage a largely imported homosexual minority to define our city? Surely our heritage is deeper than this.

As for pink plaques, we should celebrate achievement and contribution to society, not sexuality.

Councillor Nimrod Ping and his colleagues should know that local people - heterosexual and homosexual don't want to live in some bizarre fantasy world.

-David Taylor, Hove