Experiences of sexual fear, the disappearance of insects and birds and news of Zimbabwe’s new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa have provoked some of the most interesting reader discussion on our Letters page and around the Guardian today.



To get involved in discussions online you can click on the links in the comments below to expand the conversation and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments and letters worth reading as the day goes on.

Charlton Invicta are an LGBT+ friendly football team based in south east London. Current partnership with Charlton Athletic and FA affiliated. Photograph: Alex Sturrock/The Guardian

Professional footballer for Brighton & Hove Albion, Liam Rosenior, wrote a column for Opinion on the work that still needs to be done for football to be inclusive for LGBT people. Readers commented below the line agreeing with his sentiments. You can join in the conversation by clicking the links below.



Articles like this will help going forwards, I hope. Before a high profile footballer steps forward and becomes the focus of a glaring media spotlight, they need to know their fellow professionals have got their backs. Coming out is hard as hell. As a public figure, even more so. And as a public figure in an ultra macho sport with a history of homophobia...? I don’t envy the man, that’s for sure. But I do sincerely wish him well, and believe we’ll see him in the near future. Great article as ever, Liam. The Guardian did well giving you a platform.

SalfordianBlue

Great piece Liam, applaud your sentiments. Sometimes it does need an individual to make a difference, I’m really hoping somebody in the Prem comes out. For all of the good work with campaigns and good words, we need a human face to this, it’ll give everyone else confidence and if it smokes out a few bigots, then all well and good.

I’m a straight bloke and I proudly wear my rainbow laces in the summer at baseball and in the winter in Veterans’ football - it says a little bit that I’ve never had a single negative conversation about them.

deadmanonleave

Small skipper butterfly, white tailed bumblebees and marmalade hoverflies on a cotton thistle in the English countryside. Photograph: Tim Gainey/Alamy

According to Guardian reader David Marjot, the last 15 years have seen the almost total disappearance of insects and the birds that rely on them for food. Rosemary Mason noticed a similar decline where she lives and wrote to us in response. You can see more letters from Guardian readers here.



‘Have any other readers had similar experiences?’

With regard to David Marjot’s letter about lost insects in Surrey (18 November), we too have noticed a sharp decline in insects over the last 10 years in south Wales, but there are no neonicotinoids used in the area. In fact, as he noted in Surrey, spiders were the first to disappear. However, Dakar Pro, a commercial preparation of RoundUp, is sprayed on city pavements to eradicate weeds. Have any other readers had similar experiences?

Rosemary Mason

Swansea

‘I’m grateful to have met so many non-judgmental women.’ Illustration: Lo Cole for the Guardian

For this week’s life in sex column, a Guardian reader shares the story of the fear he had growing up with a “short but functional penis”. Readers were moved by the read and shared their own experiences.

I had the same problem, smaller than average penis and low self esteem. I was in a relationship with a beautiful woman, I was 19 (and a virgin), she was in her early 30’s. She made me feel comfortable and I overcame my fears. You make use of what you have, with practice and exploration the sex gets better and better.

redbuttons

It’s amazing what nonsense we get taught as a child, carry on believing through our teen and early adulthood years, that even once discarded, it is never really gone. For what it’s worth, in my experience with men, they guys who suck (metaphorically) are far more often the guys with the bigger penises. This of course is not a hard and fast rule. The hard and fast rule is that the experience tends to be far more enjoyable when both (or all) parties wish to make the experience mutually enjoyable. Perhaps those who have a greater understanding of vulnerability and weakness, are more likely to take greater care in bed to nurture their partner’s needs. Good sex is very often connection of the minds as well as the bodies.

JosephMcD84

Emmerson Mnangagwa, centre, takes his seat at his presidential inauguration ceremony in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as president of Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe resigned on Tuesday. Louise Mellor wrote a letter to us saying we should pay attention to what Mnangagwa said in Shona.



‘You were right to put the various claims of new and unfolding democracy in quotation marks’

Your report “Emmerson Mnangagwa hails ‘new democracy’ in Zimbabwe” (22 November) was a good article and indeed you were right to put the various claims of new and unfolding democracy in quotation marks. Even better would have been to report on parts of the speech that were in Shona. These include Mnangagwa stating that “those who impose us can bark like dogs, but Zanu-PF will keep ruling and ruling”.

Louise Mellor

London



Billy Connolly shows off his CBE. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

To celebrate the Scottish comedian turning 75 today you’ve been sharing your memories and experiences of his comic genius.

Mr Delfini and I had emigrated to foreign parts and were regretting it. Stuck in a cold, dismal little flat, inadequately equipped with the new language, rain bucketing down for days, we were barely speaking to each other. All we had in our advance luggage was a tape recorder/player (I’m very old) and a few audio tapes from a charity shop, previously unplayed. I put on a Billy Connolly one and, honestly, it was a Camp Granada moment. (I am VERY old) When we’d finished rolling on the floor and mopping up the tears of laughter, we hugged each other tightly and I swear the sun came out. Still living in foreign parts, I’ve not followed the Big Yin’s later career, but that glorious early work is in enough in my book to justify his place in the comedy hall of fame.

delfini



Mr Delfini and I had emigrated to foreign parts and were regretting it. Stuck in a cold, dismal little flat, inadequately equipped with the new language, rain bucketing down for days, we were barely speaking to each other. All we had in our advance luggage was a tape recorder/player (I’m very old) and a few audio tapes from a charity shop, previously unplayed. I put on a Billy Connolly one and, honestly, it was a Camp Granada moment. (I am VERY old) When we’d finished rolling on the floor and mopping up the tears of laughter, we hugged each other tightly and I swear the sun came out. Still living in foreign parts, I’ve not followed the Big Yin’s later career, but that glorious early work is in enough in my book to justify his place in the comedy hall of fame.

delfini



This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.