This week we’re dedicating our editorial space to ask to hear from you, our readers, and to share with you the policy and process behind our Letters to the Editor section.

As far as our letters policy goes, it’s rather simple: Our policy is to publish every letter we get that’s directly addressed to us and issues in our paper – and we’ll publish it as is, unedited and in the order we’ve received it.

Simple as this is, it’s really kind of extreme also. Recently the Gay & Lesbian Times was invited for representation on a panel organized by an organization of women Democrats about writing a letter to the editor. Of all the panelists, which included representatives from the Union-Tribune, Espresso and La Prenza, our letters policy is the only one that publishes everything we get without editing. Most other papers, including the Union-Tribune, edit not only for spelling and grammar but also according to space requirements, sometimes reducing letters to a key sentence or two. If we have a lot of letters on a given week, we simply increase our letters pages – no small feat as newsprint is not as cheap as people think. And when we say we don’t edit, we really mean we don’t edit: We leave in your grammatical errors, your eccentric capitalizations, your highly questionable use of italics. We don’t even run a spell check, much to the chagrin of some members of our editorial staff who find this noninterventionist in the extreme – but the publisher of this paper doesn’t want people’s ideas and opinions tampered with. He wants you to see them as they are, so the policy stands.

Which brings up another point: Why do we print letters to the editor anyway?

The obvious answer is that it allows people to contribute to a debate; it provides an unedited, genuine reflection of people’s viewpoints in their own words. The less obvious benefits of publishing letters to the editor, and the ones that we like the most, are that letters from readers allow under-represented viewpoints to reach the light of day. It provides people who aren’t journalists or friends of journalists or public relations professionals with a forum for their views and their issues. It gives voice to people who aren’t necessarily good at dealing with the media and so might not otherwise have their experiences adequately reflected. Finally and importantly, the letters section allows people to correct us, challenge our assertions and give response to our investigative and news reports. Our policy is to run corrections when we get something wrong, but the letters section can go beyond that and allow someone to respond or challenge our reports with their own eloquent words.

The fact is that much of our news today gives priority to the sound-bite message and, frankly, many editorial decisions come down to considerations about what might “draw the reader in” or what “grabs us” and boosts ratings/advertising revenue – rather than considerations about what people need to know. Too often we in the media follow the “hot topic” – whether it’s the Federal Marriage Amendment (which we’ll be focusing on next week) or the war in Iraq, to the exclusion of other, equally important but less titillating items. As if editors and readers alike suffer from acute Attention Deficit Disorder, the media are often all to quick to follow the hot topics and jump on the bandwagons catering to readers’ and viewers’ tastes, feeding them what they want to hear rather than sticking with the coverage of stories they think readers should know about. Obviously, we think we’re better than this; but everyone in the media suffers from these temptations.

That’s where letters come in, and our letters policy in particular. If all the news is about Reagan’s presidency, but what you’re experiencing in your life has more to do with your HIV drugs, or with a discrimination incident you’ve suffered through at work or at school, or with the way you feel about relationships or anything else – write us, and your point of view gets a quick, effective audience.

So, how do you do it?

The best way to send us a letter is to email us, at editor@uptownpub.com. Please include your name, address and phone number so that we can verify your identity, and make sure it’s 500 words or less. Do not use a pen name, as no one is interested in anonymous points of view. We’ll also accept letters by fax or mail. Fax to (619) 299-3430, or mail to 1730 Monroe Ave., Suite A, San Diego, CA., 92116.

At its best, good media is like having a good conversation. It provides not only information, but interaction on the real, relevant and evolving issues of the day. We love letters to the editor. We particularly like hearing what you think of issues and content and viewpoints that have been covered in our paper.

So grab a pen, or log on, and let’s talk.