And no, it’s not Rowan Williams.

At the end of a rather depressing BBC News story about gay British Asians is a startlingly positive statement from Sikh religious leader Balbir Grewal of the Guru Granth temple in Southall, London.

After describing heterosexual marriages of convenience by gays and lesbians designed to deal with pushy parents as a “sin”, Balbir Grewal goes on:

“The whole family suffers. We are living in 2008 and it’s time they should come out to the parents. Asian weddings are so expensive and then the parents have to go through the heartache of finding out that their children have lied to them.

“I’ve even heard that parents have died because of the shock of finding out about these pretend marriages. But for Asian gays and lesbians, the situation is very difficult.

“I wish that people would understand sexuality is only one part of a person and my message to parents is that being gay or lesbian does not change your child.

“People must learn more about gays and lesbians. We’re living in a modern day society and it’s wrong that this persecution carries on. It’s unacceptable.”

Do you hear that, Dr Williams? It’s unacceptable. So in an open, liberal society which regards homosexuality as a normal state of being, how would we deal with the inevitable disputes that will arise between gay members of Muslim communities and your proposed sharia courts? This is a perfectly serious question, and I’m quite open to believing that there is a sensible answer to it.

But somehow I doubt that it will come from you, despite your deserved reputation as a moral philosopher. When the less cerebrally-challenged members of your Anglican Communion were crying out for leadership on the matter of gays and lesbians in the priesthood, you immediately caved in to pressure from the more anally-obsessed among you.