Dear Editor:

Peter Feytser’s article, “Community college group fights administrators over use of ‘FAGS’” was exceptionally well done. It was factual, accurate, balanced, and very informative. San Diego City College, along with Mesa College, Miramar College, and our Continuing Education Program are supportive of our GLBT students and staff members. The San Diego Community College District was ahead of other organizations in San Diego in extending health and welfare benefits to GLBT employee’s domestic partners and dependents. The district’s employee health and welfare benefits cover 141 domestic partners and dependents. GLBT employees serve in classified, faculty, and administrative positions throughout the district.

Our 100,000 local students range in age from 14 years old to 94 years old, represent a wide range of ethnicities from over 100 countries of origin, and hold diverse religious beliefs. It should not be surprising that there are many words that have controversial impacts among such a diverse student population as well as among a very diverse employee pool of over 5,000 people who range in age from 17 years of age to over 70 years old. This diverse population covers four generations, each with a different outlook about what is appropriate in the community in which we all live.

As the region’s largest provider of higher education for the people the San Diego, we pride ourselves in the collaborative and conciliatory approach we take when presented with lawful, though controversial, social challenges students or staff seek to advance within this diverse higher education community. Given our size, it is a daunting and at times, a messy undertaking.

The issue of students calling their club “FAGS” at Mesa College was resolved within this collaborative framework. Their free speech rights were upheld within a process of educating the campus community on the evolution of disenfranchised groups seeking to reclaim a pejorative word as a word of pride. Forty years ago, the derogatory term “Chicano” was such a word. Today the word is associated with Mexican-American pride.

District leaders, faculty, staff and students participate in a wide variety of GLBT community activities ranging from membership on the Board of the Center, formal participation in Pride Week activities, as well as a wide range of community groups and events.

Richard Dittbenner, J.D.

Director, Public Information & Government Relations

San Diego Community College District

Dear Editor:

I am writing to thank you for your Yes! Endorsement for Prop 2. Prop 2 is a humane measure that “requires humane living conditions for confined farm animals.” Egg laying hens, breeding pigs, and veal calves will be able to stand up, turn around, and extend their limbs if Californians vote Yes on Prop 2. Currently in California, calves are tethered at the neck so they cannot turn around or lie down comfortably, pregnant pigs bite the metal bars of their cages, and chickens are impaled on their tiny wire cages. We wouldn’t keep our pets in such cramped, filthy conditions for their entire lives, and we shouldn’t force farm animals to live in such misery. All animals, even the ones we raise for food, deserve humane treatment and that is why I am joining GLT in voting Yes! On Prop 2.

Christina Tacoronti