I read this morning that Jade Goody has apparently sparked anger among the gay community by saying in last night’s Living TV show, ‘Jade’ that she may “look like a lesbian” if her chemotherapy treatments leave her bald or mean that she has to have her hair very short.

TV presenter and gay rights supporter Amy Lamé branded Jade’s comments “distasteful” and told The Mirror, “Does she really think that’s what all lesbians look like? It’s a completely old-fashioned, clichéd view.

“Does she really think she can get away with being homophobic like that? She’s just managed to offend and insult not just lesbians but any woman with short hair including those who’ve lost their hair from disease, including cancer.”

Lamé added, “You’d think she’d have more important things to think about than making a reality TV show and worrying about her hair.”

Well Ms Lamé, maybe you should buy yourself a sense of humour and if you’d actually watched the programme, you’d know that Jade made those comments not out of any malice but out of humour. Jade’s own mother – who is a very big part of Jade’s life – is a lesbian so Jade is clearly not homophobic. I didn’t see her run away screaming at her mother’s presence even once.

What a crass, self-serving and generic condemnation of a woman who might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but who certainly does have better things to think about than the political correctness two-step around the feelings of the gay community, who, I might add, I suspect don’t all think the same as you do.

Yes it’s a cliché to think of lesbians as cropped hair boilersuit wearing women but cliché’s are cliché’s because they are based on stereotypes. Stereotypes happen because of the number of people who fit that particular bill so are you then going to shun from the gay community any woman who does have cropped hair and wears ‘mannish’ clothing because they are exacerbating the cliché?

No? Then don’t have a go at someone for making an innocent, albeit perhaps unintentionally insensitive remark about it. Jade clearly didn’t mean to offend anyone with that remark and I can’t imagine either that fellow cancer sufferers are now going to be horribly offended and think everyone will say they look like lesbians.

Your comments are as clichéd a response as is Jade’s mental image of what a lesbian looks like, so try to remember that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, especially not at a young woman who’s facing a life and death battle with a killer disease.

Nor should you assume that every lesbian – or every cancer sufferer who has experienced hair loss – will want you electing yourself their spokesperson and speaking for them.