Gay TV and Radio personality, Evan Davies, claims the fight for gay rights has been won and we should all stop fussing. Dominic James disagrees.

• Davies claims uproar over guest house owners' bigotry was unneccessary
• TV personality appears to ignore real issues of homophobic bullying
• Life for middle class gay Londoners is OK, therefore the world is OK?
• Dominic James argues fighting prejudice is still vital

At a recent talk, the gay radio (Today Programme) and TV (Dragon's Den) presenter, Evan Davies asked the assembled group of relatively wealthy gay men: do we really need to protest anymore? He went on to answer his own question by stating (and I paraphrase here) that he felt there really was nothing to fight for any more. For example, he found the uproar surrounding the turning away of a gay couple by guest house owners earlier in the year as unneccessary and misplaced.

It seemed his argument was that, as gay men and women, we have arrived at a place where everything is alright - the battle is over. We do ourselves no favours by campaigning for 'trivial' rights.

To my dismay, no one took issue with him. Maybe they were simply star-struck. The thing is, I just don't accept that the need to campaign for gay rights has gone away. Evan Davies feels that allowing a guest house proprietor to turn away a gay couple on the grounds of Christian views does nothing to undermine all the good work that campaigners have made over recent years.

In fact, it does. As a gay man (I am 45) who grew up being conditioned to believe that being gay was wrong, bad, sick or perverted, I still have a fragile sense of self confidence in my sexuality. Negative feelings such as shame and guilt don't simply evaporate because the law has changed. It doesn't take much (such as a display of homophobia) to reignite doubts over my rights to live on equal terms with others in society. This is why it is so important that we take a strong stand against any form of homophobia - however trivial the incident might be.

At the end of the evening, I got talking to a gay man who works with gay and lesbian kids on the South coast, helping them deal with homophobia and bullying. He was equally horrified by the utterings of Evan Davies. His experience tells him that outside of the rather privileged, middle class London gay scene, life for someone growing up as gay or lesbian is still fraught with incidents of bullying, prejudice and fear. Bigoted individuals hearing of a guest house proprietor rejecting gay couples (and seeing that society isn't outraged), are likely to feel even more comfortable expounding their intolerant views. Bullies carry on bullying.

Of course, I have only spoken of the reality of the fight still to be fought here in the UK. When you look beyond our shores, Mr Davies' views seem even more misplaced. Does he not report on the utterances of the Catholic church on his Today Programme? Does he have no idea of the horrors of life for a gay man or lesbian in most of Africa? Has he never spoken to a gay man living with HIV in a country where it is illegal to be gay - such as Malaysia?

I really hope that Mr Davies' views don't reflect the views of the majority of the gay and lesbian community in the UK. I have faith that we do still care about the rights of those less fortunate than ourselves: young kids being bullied at school, men and women living under the oppression of forced marriages, older gay men and lesbians still struggling with self-acceptance etc.

It is interesting that Mr Davies rarely talks about his sexuality (he is gay) in public. I am sure he would claim this is because being gay is no longer a big deal. My hunch is that he feels that being more 'out and proud' would harm his career. You see, prejudice (or at least fear of it) persists - there is still a fight to be fought.