At whose expense is Gill Carpenter's good time in gay space (Letters, August 22)?

For every straight body in a gay venue is one less space for a gay person. I find myself in the curious position of joining neighbour and Guardian columnist Julie Burchill in her distaste for "fag hags" - straight women who flirt with gay men.

Such women are more often than not indifferent to lesbians, though suspiciously obsessed with the homosexual males to whom they cling.

The evidence is, we read time after time, gay men take female friends to gay venues and rarely that females take gay males to straight venues.

Why did Gill not go to Brighton's Paradox or Oriana's with her gay male friend?

Straight venues are, after all, in abundance. The rapid increase of numbers of heterosexual females - like hounds on the trial of a fox - pursuing gay men is a relatively recent sport and shows many straight women dismissive of what keeps a gay space precisely that.

If the issue is truly to socialise (straight female with gay male friend), the venue is immaterial.

However, the venue is vital when gay men or lesbians are looking to meet like-minded people for love, support or sex - somewhere we can speak freely with people who know how it feels.

The likes of Gill can expand her social circle in a straight venue, with or without her gay male friends.

-Johnny Lord, Montpelier Street, Brighton