Joe Zammit’s assertion (January 29) that in a relationship between two men or two women “there can never be love but only lust” must take the prize for being one of the most astoundingly wrong and offensive statements ever.

On what evidence is the statement based? If I knew as little about a subject as Mr Zammit clearly knows about this one, I think I might be inclined to say nothing about it.

I spent 33 years in a homosexual relationship until my partner died. In that time I loved and was most certainly loved in return. I am hopeful of building in the future another homosexual relationship built on trust, giving, shared experiences and, yes, love.

I agree with Mr Zammit on one thing. “Nature is what it is”. Nature made me what I am just as surely as it made Mr Zammit what he is. In the end, all I can do is laugh at his warped and bigoted ideas. His threats of Hell are futile: I cannot take them seriously. I’ll risk this destination in the interests of living my life as a happy, contented, honest, fulfilled, loving and loved gay man, which is what I am.

Mr Zammit’s letter makes religion a laughing-stock; but maybe I have misunderstood. Perhaps it is written with the writer’s tongue firmly in his cheek and is not intended to be taken seriously at all.