Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

Gay Enough?

I recently picked up The Guide at the Bike Stop in Philadelphia and found myself surprised and delighted with your editorial "Gay Is Not Enough".

Though I was not around for the heady days of gay revolution (I'm 29 years old), I, too, in the ten years since coming out, have witnessed and lamented the shift of the establishment gay community towards alleviating the unfounded fears and biases of heterosexual society. As an African-American, Jewish, homosexual male, I have never concerned myself with being "normal." It should be no stretch, then, that like you, I believe that so-called "deviant" practices-- prostitution, polygamy, bush sex, S&M, and yes, even affection for teenagers who are indeed old enough to know what they're doing-- are perfectly legitimate expressions of human sexuality. I've always suspected that I am not alone in my thinking, but when the rest of the l/g/b community is occupied with sucking the cock of heterosexual approval to think for themselves, much less utter a contrary opinion, it's easy to feel like you are the only one. I am elated, then, that you had the balls to expose yourselves so publicly in your editorial. Now, maybe I won't feel so alone.

W

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ilbur

icravemen@hotmail.com
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

While I hear what you are saying in your October 1999 editorial ["Gay Is Not Enough,"] about fighting repressive sexual attitudes in our society (and believe this is fight which needs to be undertaken ), I am disappointed in your criticism of "normal" gays.

While thinking they are being radical by giving up "normal" views about relationships (i.e.: sexual relationships must be monogamous) and swallowing "gay" views (i.e.: sexual relationships must be open), some people are not thinking for themselves and are just following another dogma. I hate the notion that I have to do anything in order to fit into any group. I prefer to think for myself and to define for myself what is right and wrong. I also prefer not to judge others for their decisions for what is right or wrong for them in their personal relationships-- it's when they fuck with me that I get mad. I believe we should be fighting the notion that there even is a right and wrong way to conduct relationships between two consenting people, not fighting each other for how we choose to live and love. This is what being radical is about to me.

Dale Youngkin
dyoungkin@yahoo.com

Put Millennium March On Hold

Planned for April 2000, the Millennium March still lacks community support and has been hobbled by a small self-selected board making decisions in secret. A majority of LGBT community organizations have either withheld or withdrawn their endorsements. Hundreds of respected community activists and organizers have denounced the secretive, top down process.

The Millennium March has been plagued by resignations of board members and most recently a reported upheaval of key personnel. The event has received no financial support from the community, and is instead propped up by a few corporations hoping to tap what march organizers say is the "lucrative gay niche" market.

The Millennium March board has ignored repeated calls to open the process to the community and create the mechanisms necessary for community involvement and democratic decision making.

Now, with just six months left, the opportunity to create a democratic, inclusive process, build a grassroots infrastructure, and mobilize the community in large numbers has passed. We believe it is in the best interests of the LGBT community for the Millennium March board to put its plans on hold and cancel the April date.

The LGBT community has organized three successful marches on Washington. Although different from each other in many respects, each began with a community-wide mandate as a foundation. First, the concept of marching on the nation's capital was raised and circulated. People around the country discussed and debated the idea. Finally, open, democratic, mass participatory meetings were convened to make the basic decisions about how to proceed. In contrast, the Millennium March was announced by only two groups, the Human Rights Campaign and the Metropolitan Community Church, as a done deal without any community input or discussion. This provoked immediate criticism. In response, march organizers arranged an invitation-only meeting so that the proposed event could be rubber-stamped as a fait accompli. Now, some twenty months later, the criticism continues to mount as the Millennium March makes one misstep after another. Shortly after the Millennium March was announced in February 1998, the Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process was formed. We have been public and vocal with our criticism. At times this has been a painful and unpleasant task, especially since many of us played significant roles in organizing our community's three successful marches on Washington. The problems of the Millennium March go far beyond individuals and result from trying to build a national event on an unsound foundation. They reflect a broader crisis of direction and definition that our movement must confront: How are community decisions made and who makes them? Who has access-who doesn't? Who has visibility-who doesn't? What is the relationship between money, control and power?

Before any further damage is done, we call upon the board of directors of the Millennium March to put this event on hold. We are confident that [we can] forge the stronger, more diverse, inclusive, and democratic movement we will surely need in the years to come. Please join us in this urgent appeal.

Leslie Cagan
lesliecagan@igc.org
Bill Dobbs
duchamp@mindspring.com
Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process
www.foranopenprocess.org

Is Shit Safe?

I am a psychologist with a coprophiliac client (she only eats her own). I am curious as to scientific data that may exist on this topic, especially as to health risks. Might you know of any web sites that could give me some useful (rather than strictly pornographic) information on this topic?

M. W.
via the Internet

Presumably, you contacted us because of the article on coprophilia on our web site. When that article first appeared in The Guide, it was accompanied by a sidebar discussing health implications of the practice, appended below and now also on the web.

Preparing the piece, we thought we'd get more reliable information, health aspects aside, talking to practitioners rather than professionals, who often have agendas when it comes to disapproved erotic practices.

Rereading what we published on health implications, we notice that we don't really deal with risks from ingestion of one's own shit, the issue with your client.

We don't know off hand of other web sites that discuss the matter, but health agencies that deal with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases generally provided straight-forward answers; they didn't seem freaked out by our questions.

"Is Scat Safe?"

(from The Guide, February 1993)

You are not likely to become infected with HIV through shit play, but there is a real risk of picking up other viral or bacterial infections, particularly if you eat shit.

HIV is normally not present in the shit of people infected with HIV-- unless hey have blood in their shit, because of an ulcer or intestinal bleeding. 'Even if there is blood in the stool, we know that the skin is an effective barrier to HIV,' says the US government's National AIDS Information Hotline (800-342-2437). 'So unless it gets in your mouth or on some mucus membrane, like your eye, or unless you have a cut or a sore, just getting shit on your skin is not something to worry about.'

Here's how New York's Gay Men's Heath Crisis sums up matters:

'Scat and watersports are OK as long as you don't get piss or shit into your body through your mouth or ass-hole. Keep fingers out of mouths if they've come into contact with piss or shit. Cuts or open sores can be ways for HIV to enter the body. Make sure your skin is unbroken before you play, and wash thoroughly after you are done. Use your own sex toys (dildos, etc.). Never share toys that haven't been cleaned wit bleach or rubbing alcohol, or covered with a new latex condom for each person using them.'

But HIV is not the only worry when it comes to shit play. Shit is a treasure trove of microbes, including potentially dangerous bacteria and viruses that are more easily transmitted than HIV. Particularly for those with compromised immune systems, playing with shit can mean exposure to dangerous infections, even if you are careful about not getting shit in your mouth or on a mucus membrane.

'With any type of fecal contact there's an increased risk of bacterial infections, or a viral infection like hepatitis,' says the US government's National Sexually Transmitted Disease Information Hotline (800-227-8922). Shit play with a person from another region or country, particularly a non-industrialized one, may mean exposure to bacteria, viruses, and parasites for which you have no prior immunity.

The risks of shit play lead some to take a cautious position. 'We say stay away from scat altogether, because of the risks of infection, and the fact that there can be blood products in waste,' says Boston's AIDS Action Committee.

As with other questions about safe sex, deciding whether and how to engage in shit play means balancing potential pleasures and potential dangers.

Wholesome, Theological Importance for Everyone

I so enjoy reading your editorial section. I always find it liberating, stimulating, affirming, passionate, and , yes, dare I say it, wholesome.

Having struggled with fundamentalist Christian beliefs, I feel these opening articles to be of theological importance for everyone. I particularly enjoyed January 1999's "Christmas as a Gay Celebration."

M.
Montreal, Quebec