The Gay & Lesbian Times is San Diego’s only legitimate weekly newspaper serving the GLBT community, and it’s time to support businesses who advertise in it.

Yes, there are other so-called GLBT papers in San Diego. But the GLT is the only one with a local newsgathering staff.

Take last week’s two hate crimes, for instance. The GLT reported them promptly and in depth and will provide follow up. Selected other “gay” media mentioned one of them, but only the GLT spoke personally to those involved in both crimes, and only the GLT offered information about what a hate crime is and what’s necessary to prove one.

In other words, only the GLT puts local GLBT news in context: Do other papers have columnists who offer expert opinion about the legal foundations and principle of hate crimes law and civil remedies? No. Do other papers feature veteran reporters, such as court reporter Neal Putnam, who interview the prosecutors and defense lawyers involved in such cases and provide synopses of the trials? Not.

Instead, San Diego’s other “gay media” are mere advertising vehicles. They masquerade as news sources but, in reality, are stuffed with ads and canned stories.

Yet they get the advertising dollars because their rates are cheaper. They can offer lower rates because they’re not out there pounding the pavement to get the scoops; investigating news stories first hand takes resources, and resources aren’t cheap.

The GLBT community should understand that such junk gay media, the papers with the pretty boy covers week after week, aren’t doing this community any favors. Rather, they divert badly needed ad revenue that legitimate newsgathering organizations need.

I’ve known Michael Portantino, the GLT’s publisher, for more than two decades. Back then he was a stock broker who could have lined his pockets and spent the rest of his days lounging in a caftan in an island cabana. Instead, he advertised heavily in the gay papers that existed at that time. Then he bought the GLT.

Portantino chose to buy the paper because he believed it was vital to this community to have a vehicle that investigates and reports local GLBT news. In the process of establishing the GLT as Southern California’s preeminent gay newspaper, he also publicized the names and activities of aspiring GLBT politicians and activists. Frankly, if it weren’t for the GLT, San Diego would not have District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Sen. Christine Kehoe or District 3 City Councilmember Todd Gloria. And District 5 City Councilmember Carl DeMaio, who didn’t need the GLT’s support, knows he benefited from having had openly gay and lesbian office holders with solid performance records, because they made his election in a conservative district a no brainer for his constituents.

Yet, after more than 20 years of service to this community, the GLT is hardly profit-making; it continues to be a labor of love. (In fact, legally, the enterprise qualifies as a nonprofit enterprise because it serves an educational function in this community that other papers don’t.)

Everyone is feeling the pinch of the recession. The GLT, in addition, suffers from the siphoning of advertising dollars by two-bit media that purport to nurture the GLBT community but in fact provide mere cheap thrills.

So before you put your advertising dollars into junk media, think about patronizing an organization that supports our community. By the same token, since every marketing study shows that GLBT consumers support businesses that support GLBT media, when shopping at stores that don’t support the GLT, you could mention to management that you might have purchased but chose not to. (By the way, businesses that don’t advertise in gay media at all but do advertise in other media have been found to be discriminatory by juries.)

As for San Diego’s so-called “gay” media, it should be aware that last year a small community newspaper sued a new competitor that offered discounted ads. Attorneys proved at trial that the paper discounted ads well below cost, in some cases giving ads away for free, because its business plan was designed to put the established paper out of business.