SIR – In his letter, Ewan Gear offers a few supposed objections to equal marriage (Worcester News, February 26) but they are all irrelevant.

He raised the subject of sexual health, but there’s no reason to think that same-sex marriage would cause or exacerbate any health issues.

On the contrary monogamous couples presumably decrease the risk associated with casual sex, for example.

He said: “It would be absurd to try to treat everyone in exactly the same way,” and indeed it would.

But this is a crude understanding of equality and a decoy of an objection.

No one is forcing everyone to get married.

The majority in the UK support same-sex marriage, I imagine because they see love between two people as the heart of romance, and by extension marriage.

Hence same-sex marriage is no redefinition. Mr Gear, on the other hand, thinks the proposals are radical. But why?

The lobby against marriage equality has comprehensively failed to specify what is so prohibitively radical, and it is that lack of detail which makes the objections appear homophobic.

Vague waffling about difference and non-specific threats to social order are all we’re offered, and yes, frankly, that is the bread and butter of bigotry.

BOB CHURCHILL Bishampton