Dear Editor:

Tacky & Desperate is no way for an adult gay man to behave!!!

This years Pride parties were full of options. This is America and I believe in fair competition. I think the line was completely crossed this year by the producer of the Official Pride Parties, Jonathon Hale.

On his website, he listed a Hard Rock Hotel shuttle bus being used to shuttle his guests around to get them to come to his venue at 4th & B. On the schedule he posted the Zoo Party as one of his stops. I felt this to be very odd, that he would be listing the Zoo Party since he was not the producer of that event, but I chalked it up to a novice producer and forgot about it.

With many of my friends in attendance at the Zoo Party, we danced all day & night to a magnificent event! We were so happy when we were leaving nothing could have penetrated our elation. Then we made it to the curbside of the parking lot where the Hard Rock Hotel shuttle bus was lingering out front. A spokes person was on a VERY loud speaker, announcing the closing party at 4th & B and a free ride. My friends I were aghast at the tacky behavior. Then another spokes person for the promoter walked up to us and offered us free tickets to the event. Now this was the height of desperation. For months Hale has been charging people money to go his event, and the night of the event he is giving out free tickets in front of another producer’s event. We all just stared at the guy trying to give us free tickets, we all looked at one another and said no thank you and walked off laughing.

What is even worse is we were considering stopping by the event to see Peter Rauhofer before heading over to Rosabel. By their abhorrent behavior we all decided to skip Rauhofer and just to go to Rosable, and decision we are very glad we made as Rosable was amazing!

As for me and my friends, we will not support any of Jonathan Hale’s tacky tactics or his desperate events, ever!!! Shame on you Mr. Hale, you have embarrassed yourself and The San Diego Pride Committee!!!

Sincerely,

Richard Szczypienski

Dear Editor:

Well, I must congratulate Ron de Hart and his SD Pride organization for the greediest pride ever. In a year when people are suffering financial hardship, SD Pride chose to raise festival ticket prices to $20. It was $15 last year — a 25% increase. What’s up with that??? Many people who would have otherwise attended the festival, chose not to due to the cost.

After last year’s festivities, SD Pride had leftover money that they donated to charity. So why do they need to increase ticket prices this year?

The San Francisco pride festival is Free admission. If they can do it, why can’t we?

Sincerely,

Carson McIntyre

Dear Editor:

Wow, another double-page “AIDS Denialist” ad in the G&L Times Pride edition. I ask myself…who pays for this propaganda?

May I remind them that in 1995 over 50,000 people died of AIDS in the U.S. Last year, it was a small fraction of that amount. Medical science must be doing something right.

In the ‘90s I would open the gay newspapers and be saddened by the weekly obituaries that spanned several pages. Thankfully, over the years we have learned much about the disease – its transmission and treatment.

I would caution the younger readers who weren’t around back then, to not be misled by this denialist misinformation. HIV does cause AIDS. Wear a condom. Play safe!

Sincerely,

Josh Butterfield

Dear Editor:

I should have expected Dr. Adrienne M. Schlang’s letter in your July 23 issue, damning you for running the two-page ad in the Pride edition challenging conventional wisdom about HIV and AIDS. It’s become an annual ritual: you sell such an ad on the double-truck of your Pride issue and people from the AIDS establishment attack you and say you shouldn’t be publishing anything critical of the mainstream view of AIDS even as a paid ad.

It’s striking that at no point does Dr. Schlang actually argue the issue on the facts. She quotes a number of statements from the ad — that HIV antibody “test results are open to interpretation” and that AIDS medicines (she puts a “sic” after that terminology for reasons that baffle me) “themselves cause the symptoms of AIDS.” Both those claims are amply supported in the scientific literature. ELISA and IFA HIV antibody tests come out as colored dots on paper and need the input of a reader to determine whether a particular color counts as positive (“reactive”) or negative (“non-reactive”).

The Western Blot, the so-called “confirmatory” test, comes out as a series of strips that respond to the presence or absence of the nine proteins supposed to make up HIV, and there are at least 11 different standards worldwide for determining which pattern of bands on the test strip counts as “positive” and which “negative.” What’s more, when test results are “indeterminate” — when the readers can’t make up their minds whether they’re reactive or not — they frequently refer to the background information on the patient to determine how to read it, so a Gay man or a member of another acknowledged AIDS “risk group” is more likely to be told he’s positive on the basis of an in-between test result than anybody else.

The claim that anti-HIV drugs themselves cause the symptoms of AIDS is based on a number of sources, including the warnings published with the drugs themselves — which frequently mention bone-marrow depletion, anemia, weight loss and other AIDS-like symptoms as possible side effects — and also on studies like the one presented at the 2004 international AIDS conference in Barcelona, which showed that the number one cause of death among HIV-positive people in the U.S. was liver failure from the toxicities of anti-HIV medications.

Dr. Schlang’s intent is not to foster or participate in an open debate regarding AIDS, its causes and its appropriate treatments. Rather, her intent is to suppress the debate, close the portals of the Queer media to it, and demand that you report on AIDS exclusively as propagandists for a mainstream view that has consistently overstated the extent of AIDS and has never come up with a convincing explanation for how HIV could cause AIDS.

Sincerely yours,

Mark Gabrish Conlan

Dear Editor:

I received an eblast from The Center today, and the subject line is “New York Life Donates $15,000 to Youth Housing Project”. This money is designated for the same program that lost $145,000 or so in funding back in January, because Center staff didn’t apply for the annual Community Development Block Grant. It was implied at the time that not having the CDBG funds wasn’t a big deal because those moneys didn’t go toward the general operating fund, but now everyone is pleased as punch about a $15000 grant from New York Life. Interesting how the wheel turns. Back in Feb, Bob Nelson wrote “While the Center Board and Dr. Jacobs took this staff error very seriously, it is important for the community to understand what it means and what it does not. CDBG funds are not ongoing operating funds for programs; they are expense reimbursement funds for capital projects. While the human error that led to the missed deadline is very regrettable, even if we had received a grant award it would not have addressed the current economic circumstance.” In the eblast, Delores Jacobs says “We’re grateful for New York Life’s dedication to improving the communities they serve,” said Center CEO Dr. Delores A. Jacobs. “Their generosity helps The Center continue to provide essential programs in a time of great need. Because of the partnership of compassionate companies like New York Life, The Center is able to offer many a chance to turn their lives around. Thanks to the support of New York Life and donors like them, The Center has been able to do something incredible — place the keys to safety in the hands of young people who hadn’t known safety in months or years.” Bob Nelson softballs the loss of funding in Feb to cover Jacob’s butt, and in July Dr. Jacobs implies that the $15000 grant is critical funding for essential services. Will you guys at least be consistent in your charade?

Steve Sallis