Dear Editor:

Perhaps a gay and lesbian newspaper would best serve their community on reporting on why a jury empanelled to decide the truth of a case involving a gay prostitute and an older gay business man “beyond a reasonable doubt”, would side with the prostitute. Considering there was no evidence in the case at all other than the accusation by the prostitute and a clinical evidence photo taken in a police clinic of a mans flaccid penis.

I think it says more of the nature of a relentless prosecution and a jury obviously not made up of his peers than anything else. Cleary the Gay and Lesbian Times is forgetting what community they are serving by the nature of its report and extreme slant they gave this story.

Edith Myers

Dear Editor:

How quickly we forget the lessons of history. The Georgia sodomy case is only a few years old and very little has truly changed since the famous court battle that Oscar Wilde lost over 100 years ago. Gay marriage and civil unions are major issues but are unlikely to win support in the courts and legislature anytime soon. Gay or Lesbian sex is still considered taboo by the majority of people in this country despite the progress we think we have made.

Mr. Marquee and his defense team were naïve to imagine that why would have a fair and impartial hearing in a US jury trial. Had he and his accuser been of the same age he would still have likely lost his case. He stood practically no chance at all with a younger accuser. Same sex relationships of all flavors are difficult for the average straight person to swallow. Juries are still selected at random from a pool of average folk that tend to serve out of boredom, retirement, or who are paid to serve such as civil servants and non essential government employees. The real jury of your ‘peers’ such as business owners, managers, physicians and other professionals tend to find excuses not to show up. To expect justice out of those that are left, especially on such a controversial issue was foolish. Mr. Marquee should have dealt with his extortionist the way homosexuals have dealt with such things for centuries. Privately.

Shame on every person that has skipped out of jury duty for whatever excuse they used. More importantly, Shame on our newly elected District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis for staging this charade. We elect her as an openly Lesbian Attorney and then get slammed by her deputy’s treatment of the same Gays that helped her get to office in the first place. Politics as usual we suppose.

Brian Sebenza and Eric Carpentier

Dear Editor:

I read with interest your article in the most recent edition of the GL Times regarding the case of Bret Marquis. I would like to address the following concerns I had with this article:

Why is mention of Mr. Marquis’ penis size or physical attractiveness, or one Person’s opinion that “people know he’s a pedophile” relevant and newsworthy? Personal details like this are irrelevant to the story and smack of a blatant attempt at character assassination.

Bottom line: Don’t rely on a sixteen year old convicted drug offender and prostitute or an overzealous, libelous district attorney to do all of the reporting legwork for you. While Mr. Marquis has in fact been found guilty by jury of a particularly heinous crime, it is up to you as responsible members of the community to focus on factual, neutral reporting – not garbage fit for Jerry Springer or a tabloid “news” magazine.

As a business owner and resident of San Diego for my entire life, I must carefully choose my associations. Since you failed to address all sides of this story and instead resorted to smearing a member of the community (guilty or not), I will have to think twice before approaching your publications for either advertising or display space at my place of business.

Samuel M. Livingston

Dear Editor:

Your April 1 cover story implored “Get Active, San Diego.” There was lots of hand-wringing and complaining but no sidebar or list accompanying the feature to inform San Diegans how to get involved with the various subheads outlined. A list of phone numbers, e-mail and Web site addresses for the organizations in the story would have provided a very valuable resource.

Thank you,

Lee A. Schoenbart