IT feels like it should be a relic, a thing of the past, but I have friends who still haven’t come out as gay because they are afraid of the reaction.

It’s still noteworthy, it can still be headline news, when a person in the public eye announces they are not heterosexual.

And it feels so strange because there has been so much of a seachange in public attitudes towards the LGBTI community. There has been campaigning and legislation changes and the notion of there being discrimination against gay or lesbian or queer people feels so retro.

But it’s not retro, is it? It’s not retro when a Catholic chaplain of a university holds a mass - albeit off campus and in his own parish - to atone for the “gross offence to God which is Pride Glasgow.”

Wince. Now, Father Mark Morris is entitled to his views because of his job. As a Catholic priest, his main employer would encourage him to hold those views, although last month the Vatican used the phrase “LGBT” in a document for what it believed to be the first time. Progress indeed.

The issue is Father Morris’s connection to a university, a place where young people are coming to study and where they should expect open-mindedness, support and equality.

Imagine being 17, unsure of yourself and knowing that an official appointed at your university thinks you are a “gross offence”.

It was suggested that it is not the responsibility of a university to protect students from views they do not agree with.

That leads you into arguments about the snowflake generation, trigger warnings and whether Millennials are too pathetic to deal with robust academic debate.

All interesting topics, but not relevant here.

Sexual orientation and religious affiliation are both protected characteristics. The respect we afford religion allows people of faith carte blanche to spout views that, from almost any other mouth, would be hate speech.

It’s a clear conflict of interest to be in a position of authority and preach disgust for a section of the community you are there to support.

In the week leading up to Donald Trump’s stay in Scotland, the salvos began firing early.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard and Scottish Green Party co-convenor Patrick Harvie presented a united front in calling for various measures in protest at the US President.

Nicola Sturgeon, however, was notable in her silence. The First Minister has previously spoken in the strongest terms about Mr Trump, calling for Theresa May to rescind his state visit to the UK, as one example.

As Mr Trump landed at Prestwick and headed off to Trump Turnberry to schmooze his private business interests at a cost to the British taxpayer, Ms Sturgeon lead out the Glasgow Pride march.

She quite literally voted with her feet. Instead of releasing a statement condemning Trump, she took part in an event she said was: “celebrating and reaffirming the values of tolerance, diversity, equality, love and respect.”

Can Donald Trump claim to promote the values of tolerance, diversity, equality, love and respect? I should cocoa.

In its first year, the Trump administration refused to recognise Pride Month. It has nominated people to the courts who have anti-LGBTI records. It has tried to reinstate a ban on transgender people in the military, to name but a few.

While on this side of the Atlantic we like to think that rights for LGBTI people are assured, violence and discrimination against gay and trans people is far from consigned to history.

A report from Stonewall, the LGBTI rights charity, in Scotland showed that one in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident due to their sexual orientation or gender identity in the 12 months prior to the survey.

It also said the number of lesbian, gay and bi people in Scotland who have experienced hate crime has increased from nine per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2017- that’s 89 per cent in five years.

In the face of figures like these, it cannot be right for an institution such as a university to be affiliated with someone who sees LGBTI people as an offence.

Jesus said, "Love one another." He placed no caveats on that. We, though, must place caveats on those who work with our young people. That they can love and respect unconditionally, or they can move on.