Dear Editor,

RE: “Why do Christians love the word hate?” (“Slouching Through Gomorrah,” by Michael Alvear). I appreciate Michael Alvear’s column “Slouching Through Gomorrah.” The dialog he creatively constructed between the “Fundamentalist” and Jesus (Nov. 6 issue) certainly rang true. However, Mr. Alvear’s title, “Why do Christians love the word hate?” brings up an issue of concern. Does it suggest a sweeping generalization of Christians that we often see in the media? I believe we give the minority voice of fundamentalists (albeit a very vocal one) enormous and undeserved power by anytime implying that they speak for all Christians. I’m sure that was not Mr. Alvear’s intent, as that serves to undermine the many true Christians who are not “literalists” and to whom the word “hate” is an anathema.

If we stereotype all Christians as fundamentalists, it is as inaccurate and hurtful as those stereotypes we have experienced about gay men and lesbian women. I pray for the cataclysmic day when all the media elevates the majority voice of “loving” Christians as the true spokespersons for the Church universal. In the meantime, let’s deny the minority any further false sense of empowerment as speaking for all Christians.

Rev. Tony Freeman

MCC San Diego

Dear Editor

It is a great pleasure to live and work in the Coachella Valley, and to have been part of the historic election of an openly-gay, African-American Mayor (Ron Oden), and openly gay (Steve Pougnet) and openly lesbian (Ginny Foat) members of the City Council. It is also extremely exciting that sexual orientation was not an issue in the campaign, and that the winners will represent all the citizens of the City.

In the many years that I have traveled to Palm Springs, and in the two+ years that I have lived in the desert, I have come to know and love so many people, and Palm Springs has become my home, which made a recent event even more disheartening. I was recently removed from a fairly high profile media association of over a year partly in fact (sic) that I was “too gay.” I am unclear as to whether or not the decision was made by the independent producer of the show or the owner of the station or both, but I have been told by at least two people, including the independent producer, that it was the owner’s decision that I leave the show, and that it is the first time in the history of the producer’s show that the owner has exercised this sort of control. I asked for more detailed explanations of what transpired, but those explanations have not been forthcoming.

I served this media outlet for over a year with great fanfare, and took my role there very seriously. I have struggled with how to address my removal, and have wondered how to take the “moral high ground” in dealing with it. I have spent the last two decades fighting for gay and lesbian civil rights, and therefore, I have decided that I cannot be silent about what happened. I’m also not going to prolong the issue. I will make this statement and move on. If I could not substantiate what I am communicating in this letter, you would not be reading it.

I have both a statement and an appeal. If you are in business and you are catering, in any way, to the gay and lesbian market, you should be doing so with love and acceptance of our community, or we will ultimately discover that you’re smiling at us while stabbing us in the back, and we will create new personal and business associations. If you need help in coming to know and understand, and embrace lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals, we are here to work with you.

My appeal is to the media in the Coachella Valley and everywhere. Yes, there are gays and lesbians working in all levels of your organizations, and many are out of the closet and are wonderful role models. However, there is a dramatic absence of people in the media who are openly gay in their media outlets as a way of informing their coverage. As a hypothetical example, in entertainment reporting, a female anchor would often “swoon” about a male movie star she is reporting about, and it’s simply part of telling the story. The assumption is that she is heterosexual and that it’s okay for her to swoon over a male movie star. Don’t you think it’s appropriate for a gay male entertainment reporter, in print or in broadcast, to do the same thing? This is simply one example of a complex issue, and I would like to appeal to the media of the Coachella Valley to create ways of reflecting back to the citizens who we really are in your reporting.

Yes, I have an agenda, but it’s not hidden. I decided a long time ago to be openly gay in the public eye and to follow my own “Hollywood” dreams, many of which are coming true in Palm Springs. As I begin a return to more mainstream Hollywood-based coverage, I will continue to cover the Coachella Valley for all the world to see. Perhaps, as I write this letter and put it out there into the Universe, some doors will slam shut, but others will open, but I will be able to live with myself.

The world is changing, and I ask that the media in the desert follow the lead of its citizenry.

Nicholas Snow

Palm Springs