Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

Uncle Sam: homewrecker?

I have lived with my partner, a German citizen, for the past eight years. When his work visa expired in February 2000, he had to leave the US. This forced separation has caused us both a great deal of emotional pain and financial hardship. Our situation is not unlike that affecting thousands of other same-gender bi-national couples around the country (described on-line at home.pacbell.net/donoharm/advocate.htm).

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Heterosexual US citizens can marry their foreign partners who can then apply to the INS for immigration permission. Because same-sex marriage is not yet legal, this option is closed to Bernd and me, and to thousands of others. To remedy this, New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler has introduced a bill (HR 690- Permanent Partners Immigration Act) to allow gay and lesbian citizens to sponsor their foreign partners for US immigration. If this bill passes, more than 60,000 people could benefit by petitioning for their partners. Please write a letter urging your Congressperson in Washington to support HR 690, and write your US Senator urging him/her to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.

Tim Sally
San Francisco, California

'Mailroom whores' censor Guide

I received the November and December issues in March. Our puritanical mailroom whores had to hold and censor them, clipping some 10 pages. And these are hypocritical cunts who'll fuck anything with a pulse for a promotion... or a crack rock.

a reader
deep in the bowels of the Texas prison system

Look in the mirror

Regarding your editorial Attack the Religious Right: How are white homosexuals better than the religious right? You forget there are alot of gay men who are racist and sexist. The homosexual community has to look in the mirror first to see the problems we have. Why are people of color still complaining eight years after Clinton? Gore likes whites more than people of color, look who he chose as a running mate: a Jew. He forgets the slaves who did the work in this country.

Sebastian
SbstnLewis@aol.com

All guys are gay

I agree completely with your editorial from your on-line archives, Gay is Fundamental.

Bill
wjernberg@hotmail.com

Maniacs solicit underwear in mail

I like The Guide very much. Every time I get too much pleasures from reading The Guide. My favorite writers are Michael Bronski and Dawn Ivory. I like to travel with Bobby Stevens and Matt Mathrani. I was simply spellbound by their magic reports about different beautiful cities. And thanks to your interesting Male Box, the many gay men was able to find each other. Thanks to your nice magazine, I've got too many letters from different countries. Not every letter was interesting. I've got letters from strange maniacs who want me to send them my underwear or who draw their cocks in letters. But I've got several smart letters from real men who were also true decent persons.

Stanislaw Tovkach
Kharkov, Ukraine

Guide 'bright star in dark sky'

You are right on track, with your fuller human view, of the homosexual component of this modern tragedy Into the Wilderness (about the Columbine school shootings), June 1999.

I am gay, although I am still discovering what that means, and I am fifty. I am more than my sex! I believe we all are. I hate labels, but support gay rights as a civil rights issue. I believe in a much deeper, and not often revealed, aspect of human beings, is being worked out here. Unnatural social and religious-based constraints on what it is to be male or female are being broken down. Our identity as human beings remains full of paradox and mystery. If that is so, let rigid prejudice give way to the warm and juicy, bright and lovely, humor and grace, that is the Heart!

You have a depth and insight I certainly didn't expect to find. You are a bright star in a dark sky!

Michael Brunette
tyson@gbonline.com

Butt fucking as bonding

In recent editions of The Guide, I have noticed a certain confused effort to understand what homosexuality is all about. It is one thing to defend Dr. Laura's right to spread her lies but we must be able to counter with the truth and we don't yet know what the truth is.

The belief that homosexuality is a deviant form of reproductive behavior is a false assumption which goes back to the fertility cults of the Neolithic. At that time, the human race became obsessed with reproduction and sex was seen solely as a reproductive function. In fact, sex has two different biological functions: reproduction and social bonding. Now, biologists have found that, in humans, sex is almost exclusively social bonding and, since humans engage in so much social bonding, the reproductive instinct has become superfluous.

Homosexuality provides the perfect test to determine whether sex in humans is reproductive or social bonding. The reproductive hypothesis has been unable to explain anything about homosexuality while the untried social bonding hypothesis opens ways to explain everything. If sex is reproductive behavior, male homosexuality would have to be caused by a feminine trait, but no such trait has ever been found. However, if sex is social bonding behavior, it would be possible for men to be so masculine that they could only form intimate bonds with other men.

Let me ask you, is fellatio a mechanism by which women become pregnant or a mechanism by which men form bonds of companionship? What little research has been done on this subject indicates that fellatio is a masculine, not feminine, behavior.

Anal intercourse has caused the greatest amount of confusion, but remember that among many animals, males will flaunt their masculinity by mounting other males. Males who are mounted behave as though they have become psychologically castrated. Among the more advanced social mammals, males may signal their desire for friendship by offering their butts to other males. However, only males who feel secure within themselves are able to do this without feeling their masculinity threatened.

Drag queens are also often cited as evidence that homosexual men are effeminate, but these men are actually clowns who seek to draw attention to themselves by acting out social stereotypes. I agree with everything that Marshall McClintock wrote [in a letter to The Guide, May 2000, available at www.guidemag.com] except that I would add that there is a strong element of self-hatred in their performances.

I would strongly urge everyone to go back to biology and check out what I have written. However, be prepared to abandon ancient beliefs which should have gone out with the flat earth.

The influence of Neolithic fertility cults on modern religions is a subject that will have to wait for another time. But I can't resist pointing out that what was going on at Sodom was a fertility ritual in which it was customary to sacrifice a homosexual man (i.e. a man who was receptive to anal intercourse). Apparently, the people of Sodom had run out of local candidates.

Bruce Hawkins
Phoenix, Arizona

Inspired by Whitman

Among my favorite American writers is Walt Whitman. Whitman was a genius of interpretation. Being quite familiar with after-glow, I am certain that given the same command of the language and interpretive skills, I'd have several volumes to share, as well.

It's hot to imagine good ol' Walt and Henry David in the woods doing what I only wish I could without getting arrested! Oh, for inspiration!

"Now, dearest comrade, lift me close to your face till I whisper/ We must separate a while-- here, take from my lips this kiss/ Whoever you are, I give it especially to you/So long! And I hope we shall meet again...."

ChefAttack@aol.com

Well guided

I felt compelled to write a few lines of praise to let you guys know how much I appreciate The Guide. I've been an steady reader and user of the magazine for over two years, and you guys have always provided me with sound advice when I travel.

Now if fate would just send Mr. Right my way all will be in order. (Mr. August 2000, "JD," will do just perfect-- wishful thinking!)

LaMonte
palamonte@aol.com

Web translator muy comico

Just found your site and liked it very much [www.guidemag.com]. I'm fluent in English, but I checked the Spanish translation of the stories. I must say it is very bad, and that's a pity.

I didn't check Italian, Portuguese, or French-- just Spanish which is my native language.

Hope you don't mind constructive criticism.

Longabax
longabax@sinectis.com.ar

Thanks for letting us know about the quality of the translation provided. The translation is done automagically by computer. Computers, luckily, aren't as linguistically smart as real people yet. The idea is to give non-English speakers of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian(!) and French a shot at reading our pages-- we know that they're not going to get perfect prose (but probably will get a few laughs!).

Pleased MaleBox advertiser

I just wanted to say thank you for your outstanding customer service. I am genuinely and continually very impressed with the way you handle everything. I have never seen anything like this and never expected to see such service and care from A to Z.

A. Y.
Sharon, Massachusetts