Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

'Gay Vietnam' Inspires Refugee

I profoundly enjoyed reading "Discovering Gay Vietnam" [December 1997] by Dr. Charles Silverstein.

Having to flee Vietnam at the age of four (now 26), I have no memory of the culture nor sites (visual) of the country.

As an adult, I would like to have the experience to visit my native origin and have more knowledge of my heritage.

D.N.

Phoenix, Arizona

Coverage Disappoints

Your December 1997 coverage of St. Petersburg, Florida, was piss poor. I doubt your roving reporters even visited the city because the Backroom is in Madeira Beach, and the Pro Shop is in Clearwater, neither of which is St. Petersburg. You say, too, that the Backroom is devoted to the leather/Levi group, yet I've not seen it. And you say nothing of gay beaches or King of Peace Metropolitan Community Church (one of the nicer churches in West Florida) or where to shop, dine, etc. in gay St. Pete.

View our poll archive

Frankly, I was disappointed with your coverage. I thought your magazine was a hot item until I looked closer.

W.S.

Clayton, Delaware

Even the 46 pages(!) we devoted to Florida last December can't cover everything, but rest assured that our travel writers visited St. Petersburg just days before the article appeared.

Sometimes it is challenging trying to decide under what city to locate write-ups of businesses: do clubs just across the river from St. Louis get listed under St. Louis, or does the much smaller town in Illinois where they're really located get to claim them? Where does "Los Angeles" end? What is most useful to readers unfamiliar with the area who might not recognize accurate, but relatively unknown, city headings? Our article did note that the Pro Shop is in Clearwater, and Backroom Bar (which does indeed attract considerable leather/Levi clientele) wanted to be listed under St. Pete (though their ad made clear that they actually were in Madeira Beach)-- sorry if you were confused.

We don't pretend to cover all aspects of any city's gay life, but you're right that we might have noted that the section of Pass-a-Grille Beach below 8th Street is cruisiest.

Web Suggestions

I love the fact that you are on-line now. I am a current subscriber of your magazine and have found your articles interesting and informative. I have especially found your articles concerning gay destinations accurate and unbiased. I have visited several of the gay resorts who advertise in your magazine and have found them to be just as you described them. Keep up the good work!

However, I am a little disappointed with your website. With such marvelous graphics at your disposal and the potential for full-color photos of the resorts you feature, I found nothing but text in the destinations area. So many of these locales are in spectacular settings-- great photo ops. Perhaps you can include photos in the future. The steam heat section is especially lacking. All of those marvelous photos in the mag, but nothing like that on the website! I realize your website is a work in progress and I hope you will take the following suggestions into consideration: 1) include explicit photos of hot men whenever and as often as possible; 2) include photos whenever possible of the gay resorts, bars, owners, staff, and clientele; 3) provide links to the websites of resorts who advertise in your magazine.

Thank you for providing this outlet in which I may voice my opinions/suggestions. I look forward to future installments of gay destinations.

a reader

LITTLEJAG@webtv.net

Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions. Right now, we are working to make MaleBox on the Web function smoothly. We then hope to devote ourselves to implementing some of the improvements/changes you suggest to the rest of the site. Glad you are able to enjoy our admittedly text-heavy site now, and hope to bring you a graphically snappier version in the coming months!

Crazy About Web Sex Histories

Four simple words regarding "Drunken Naked Sixteen Year Olds Wave Dicks in Drive Way" [a true sex history available at www.guidemag. com]: it was crazy great!

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