To the producers of Q&A:

We are writing to complain about the inclusion of the Reverend Fred Nile on the special 'Q&Gay' edition of Q&A, a discussion panel of LGBTIQ topics to be held on ABC, Thursday, 18 June.

Throughout its seven year run, Q&A has been a valued forum for LGBTIQ issues, and marriage equality, for instance, has been one of the most consistently debated topics on the program. Unlike any other program, it has provided an open place for the airing of sometimes sensitive subject matter, a safe place where the LGBTIQ can engage with the Australian conversation and feel that we are part of it. It is not surprising then that the show is particularly popular amongst our demographic and is much shared and supported in our social media.

We are deeply hurt and disturbed by the inclusion of the Reverend Nile in this discussion panel of LGBTIQ issues, because, put simply, Fred Nile IS an LGBTIQ issue.

His campaigns against our community are unparalleled in this country, and his hate speak has echoed through the halls of state parliament and national media for decades now. What his presence will mean is that not one topic will be allowed to pass without having to defer to our most arch critic. No issue will be examined without his toxic analysis and hateful commentary. Nothing can be said without referring to Fred.

We believe that the inclusion of the Reverend Fred Nile on a panel discussion on LGBTIQ subjects represents a uniquely special form of vilification and discrimination on the part of the producers, and is an incorrigible attempt to sensationalise our lives for the sake of spectacle.

You would simply not subject any other group in Australian society to this indignity. You would never include an ardent racist on a panel on indigenous rights. You would never have a noted misogynist round out a panel on women's issues. You would never have a rampant islamophobe on a roundtable on Muslim matters. You would not expect members of the Jewish community to sit alongside an anti-Semite.

Yet you have invited the ultimate enemy of our community to our table. You have forced us to sit down with one of our principal abusers while we discuss our abuse and the often painful oppression of which he has played a prolific part.

We ask that you reconsider your decision to place the Reverend Fred Nile on the LGBTIQ panel on Q&A. You may have wished to create conflict and counterpoint as is the requirement of your debate, but you need look no further than our community for diversity of outlook. We are a community so diverse, so rich and varied, there appears to be no word in any language to describe us, so we have adopted the acronym of LGBTIQ: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer.

Given this splendid array of difference, it is surprising that the discussion is weighted in favour of white people over 50, and particularly puzzling that one of them is Fred Nile. Consider for a moment that his presence is taking up the place of hundreds of thousands of people who may be transgender, intersex, indigenous, young, disabled, or from the myriad of culturally diverse communities from which our community draws.

The Reverend Fred Nile should not be on the panel simply because he is anti-gay, although that is reason enough. He should not be on the panel simply because he is not gay.