Dear Editor:

Toni Atkins, what a class act. She busted her butt to get the marriage equality issue passed and then she graciously gave all of the credit to others. From the first time I met her I felt that she had sensitivity and honesty. How lucky the people of San Diego are to have a person of this character representing them in public office. She can sure count on me for support in her future endeavors. We need to keep this fine lady in politics.

Charlie Sharples

Dear Editor:

I am a transgendered woman. I was heartened by your editorial last week where your magazine took a stance in support of the transgendered segment of our community in supporting an all inclusive ENDA bill.

Then tonight I discovered from your “reader poll” that 66% of local gay and lesbian respondents support a NON-trans inclusive ENDA bill.

The fact that 66% of our brothers and sisters DO NOT support the idea of transgendered people enjoying the same protections and civil rights deemed so important to the GLB(T) movement is just sad.

As a transsexual in a same sex relationship with another transwoman I am doubly troubled. My partner and I identify as lesbians, call us gay if it pleases you. Are we not a part of the G&L community?

Then why are our brothers and sisters refusing to support us? There would be no GLBT civil rights if the TS/TV’s hadn’t gotten fed up with official abuse and rioted at Stonewall. After so many years, why would 66% of you be OK with letting our legislators sell us out at the last minute?

More than anyone, transgendered people need Federal job protections. Transgendered women are the mostly likely segment of our society to lose or be denied employment based on sexual or gender identity. Even more so than gay and lesbian youth, young trans people often end up losing family and community support and end up on the street.

The result is (depending upon which poll you use) between 30% and 50% of transgendered women work in the sex trade. Roughly 30% are HIV positive. There is a saying “30/50” - by age 30, 50% of young trans people will commit suicide or die of HIV or other causes.

ENDA is a step toward ending such horrific statistics – and I submit that it is the duty of the Gay and Lesbian community to become educated on the realities facing transsexuals, and that it is in the best interest of the GLB community to stand beside us in our mutual quest for full civil rights, some 230 years after we were all “created equal” by the Declaration of Independence.

Please my GLB brothers and sisters, don’t abandon us now.

Jamie Starr

Dear Editor:

Awhile back your publisher contacted me infuriated that I might believe he takes no responsibility for what he prints in this paper. Calling me crazy because I would not drink his Kool-Aid, he again denied what I believe to be his duty to the truth when dealing with the health and safety of the community. Mr. Portantino has refused to report pertinent facts regarding the closure of Club 2200 allowing the issue to be politicized for what can only be for his own benefit.

I will state it one more time. I worked to shut down 2200 because the manager Mark E. Carter, a.k.a. “Bud,” was the former general manager of the Mustang when drugs were sold, extreme high risk behaviors were encouraged and there were several deaths that occurred at the club. After reporting to the community that there would be entirely new management and staff, Portantino continues to refuse to acknowledge what Charlie Sharples himself admitted in court thus allowing rumors and gossip to be perpetuated among the ignorant of this community.

For one to believe city officials prosecuted Club 2200 solely because of sexual activity between “consenting adults,” one must ignore what this very newsmagazine has documented, underage boys do “find their way into bathhouses” and they do become HIV positive. One must also ignore the resume of the club’s manager. For one to believe baths are a safe, clean, HIV educated, drug free adult environment, one must believe the management of such establishments is honest, responsible and ethical, characteristics I would never attribute to Carter, Sharples or either Smith.

I have no allegiance to Mike Agurie. The city attorney’s office acted on the club only because they were backed into a corner. Agurie personally held the case up for a year. The first and second deputy attorneys assigned to the case are currently involved in the law suits against Agurie for giving the women in his office unimportant cases. Fact is the SDPD originally began their investigation at the request of city code enforcement. Agurie was only a “cog in the wheel.”

No one has ever addressed the issues I have raised. Instead this community, lead by your publisher, would rather marginalize this issue by blaming an out of control city attorney and/or a deranged zealot such as James Hartline in a pathetic attempt to manipulate SD politics for no other reason then ego. Funny thing… Hartline had ABSOLUTLY NOTHING to do with the closure of the club.

The only forum I have been allowed in this paper has been in this limited space. Anytime the former Club 2200 is brought up, a link is made to O’Brien’s editorial but no link is made to my response. (A response O’Brien would not print and only saw publication when he went on vacation.) Perhaps Mr. Portantino and I have different ideas on what it is to be a responsible publisher.

Kevin McCarthy

Dear Editor:

Once again the LGBT community can only be extremely disappointed with Nicole’s recent column describing the city council candidates forum. He made no attempt to be objective and could only praise each candidate including James Hartline. Anyone new in town would believe that Hartline was a viable candidate who would be more than willing to fairly represent all of his constituents including us. There was no mention that Hartline spent five terms in prison for numerous convictions involving theft and illegal drug use, that he blames his homosexuality on his parents hiding pornography in their home, he claims that he was beaten on a regular basis by his mother and he believes that he contracted the aids virus at the Club Mustang even though he admits practicing unsafe sex and sharing needles. (SD City Beat 10/05 & SD News Notes 01/06) He claims that he exposed a major pedophile network operating within the San Diego Gay Pride organization, stopped the African American gay organization Ebony Pride from using public park, stopped Catholic Bishop Brom from holding a memorial service to honor the deceased owner of a gay porn-promoting business, and exposed the corruption within the radical homosexual agenda. (James Hartline Report 2005, www.jameshartline.com)

Please Nichole, try to put an ounce of common sense in your column. Replacing Toni Atkins with James Hartline would be a disaster to our LGBT world and would set back our achievements by decades.

Pat Thornton