Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

Tired of Fundies

Thank you for your much needed editorial Our Secular Foundation [July 2005]. We are forming up a group of felons and friends and families of felons in the state I live in to get involved in electoral politics, to represent the marginalized and dispossessed. We are tired of being pushed around by the religious in state sponsored rehab and prison programs. Love,

W. D.
via the Internet

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Wants Guide in Seattle

I live in Seattle, Washington. I am interested in purchasing or picking up The Guide. The two stores I used to buy it at have gone out of business. Where can I find The Guide?

Jimm Eaton
Seattle, Washington

You might try Ace Hotel, Basic Plumbing, Club Seattle, Club Z, the Cuff Complex, Manray, Neighbours, R Place, or Timberline Spirits; they all get The Guide towards the end of each month. If you don't want to risk missing a month (and who does?), subscribe!

Not Bowles-ed Over...

Regarding your editorial Our Secular Foundation [July 2005], I don't think we can say it too often that ours is a secular nation that protects freedom of religion, and homosexual citizens should be very interested in keeping us free of religious domination of any sort. And the article on the new Pope and the history of sex in the Catholic Church is good [New Papal Bull, July 2005].

I also liked the coverage of Chicago, and that you cover the resources that most "gay" travel people don't. But in addition to the new Center on Halsted, the film festival, leather events, and coming Gay Games, I wish you had mentioned the library, Gerber/Hart; it has information that might help visitors know more about the gay history of the area.

And it is good that you have some sex in your publication (the Sex Histories column and the reviews of videos) since there is "sex" in homosexuality!

My one problem with the issue, and it is frustrating since you do have book reviews, which too many gay publications don't, is that you have a long review of a book on someone who doesn't deserve the coverage and respect from our movement/community. I refer to the review by Michael Bronski in Between the Lines of the book Paul Bowles: A Life by Virginia Spencer Carr.

The article suggest Bowles knew lots of "important" people. I disagree. The people listed are not important, certainly not to a homosexual community which should honor and consider those writers and artists who have done something for our community/movement.

The author was a friend, we are told. Well, who else is she friendly with that she will write a book about and will it be reviewed only because they are "gay?" Are we still seeking celebrities to claim to make us feel better as gays? Certainly Bowles, et al, are helpful to our enemies, who want to show how bad our "gay marriages" will be and that we are all pill poppers. Is the life of Bowles any more important and relevant to the gay community than, say, Brittany Spear's is to the teenagers who seek

to copy her and dress as she does, and will find someone else to adore next year?

I look forward to seeing reviews of books and books about gays who actually were out and did something for our cause.

Without the support of the homosexual community our libraries and archives will have very little finances to have books so they must find the ones worthwhile, this one is not such a book. I think it was a real gay writer worth honoring, Joseph Hansen, who said something about us all being pebbles who together make a mountain or move a mountain. It seems to me you want to consider Bowles a mountain, while I find him only a pebble at best.

Billy Glover
billygloverhic@hotmail.com