Sir: The coverage of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz has been powerful and moving, but it has largely overlooked the slaughter of disabled people by the Nazis in the death camps. Sir: The diary story ("btw", 29 January) about Janet Street-Porter receiving an inappropriate response when she wanted the word "sorry" reminded me of a question set for 11-plus pupils in Northern Ireland in the early Seventies. Sir: I find it strange that the BBC, warning me of the foul language in Jerry Springer - The Opera, should refer to it as "strong language". Sir: On Saturday, after a ringtone, my fellow passengers and I heard a voice answer: "I'm driving a bus." Fortunately, no apples were visible DAVID RIDGE London N19. Chris Smith may not even recognise that what he has done is still important, in Britain as well as internationally.d.orr independent.co.uk.

Those who will not accept gay equality, all around the world, are determined not to be ignored But they must be. But while it might seem in a nation that laps up Queer As Folk and Graham Norton that gay culture, in all its messy and subversive glory, is not just accepted but adored, this impression is not true, or at least not true for everyone. Ken Livingstone (who ironically enough is throwing a pounds 10,000 public reception to mark the 20th anniversary of Smith's coming-out), has taken to defending Muslim clerics who condemn homosexuality in the strongest terms on similar grounds.In Britain, legislatively at least, the majority of gay rights battles have been won. Various Jamaican dancehall stars, eager to broadcast lyrics inciting the murder of homosexuals, are likewise defended as being the products of their culture. This anger is often taken out on homosexual men, who report a huge rise in homophobic attacks. On the international stage, unfortunately and for various reasons, that situation is even more awful.The Italian politician, Rocco Buttiglione, managed to stir up widespread sympathy when he was rejected as an EU commissioner - his homophobia, he explained, was an intrinsic part of the Catholic faith.

It happens with race too, with the idea that somehow being born poor in a country that abuses your human rights is a passport to British nationality that a mere Anglo-Saxon born in Much Deeping could not hope to compete with.And it is dangerous. In these times, with liberal acceptance and celebration co-existing with continuing distrust and anger, anyone who is a little bit different still has to walk a tightrope. The increase in hate attacks on the streets of Britain is unwelcome evidence that with freedom comes risk.Behind Britain's liberality lurks anger and intractability. It happens with class as well - particularly with the right-wing idea that a third-rate education at a failing comprehensive will propel people into Oxbridge ahead of their own expensively educated geniuses. The implication behind this rhetorically biased question is that nowadays people can expect to be rewarded for being gay, and that Smith is intending to cash in on an illness that can be used to his financial advantage as well as a boost to his ego in terms of attention and admiration.Such propaganda, however, is just one manifestation of a new sort of prejudice, which attacks people more subtly than before by complaining that somehow their victimhood is being rewarded.It is seen not just with the idea that one is specially feted because of positive discrimination as a homosexual. Yesterday's Daily Mail, for example, carried the absurdly loaded headline: "Brave or just a cynical ploy by a grey man who craves praise?". But even now, as his parliamentary career comes to an end (he is not standing for re-election), there are plenty of people who will try to use this development against him.