Dear Editor:

It’s a sad and pathetic sight when a two-page spread on the artist formerly known as Diana Ross features a huge photo of someone who looks like a stoned, poor impersonation of the once supreme lady.

Sadder and more pathetic is all the erroneous mistakes in a puff piece that reads like it was snatched from a publicist’s bio. Suffice is to say Florence Henderson of “The Brady Bunch” did not “exodus” The Supremes in 1967. Florence Ballard, the group’s founder was forced from the group by then-Motown boss Berry Gordy Jr. and his paramour – Ross.

Ross hasn’t had a hit in 20 years since the 1984 Daryl Hall production “Swept Away.” She did not receive 10 Grammy Award nominations. And by the time Gordy sold Motown to MCA/Universal in 1986 for $61 million, Ross was a former shadow of herself. The Motown she “returned” to as an “equity partner” in 1989 was a shell run by Polydor Records.

The only love fest left for the delusional Diana is the one she has with herself. She scammed her fellow Supremes on the trumped up Back to Love Tour some years back, but the fans didn’t take the bait and the sham of a show was cancelled.

At 60, she’s forced to perform in secondary concert venues because the woman who would be the recording industry’s version of Norma Desmond cannot fill the Sports Arena let alone Coors Amphitheatre.

Is that a gin and tonic on the bar in front of Ross in your other publicity photo? Not a good match for one who should have been singing “Ain’t No Jail Cell Big Enough” after her late-night run-in with the cops in Arizona for drunk driving.

Lee A. Schoenbart

Dear Editor:

As a regular reader of the Gay and Lesbian Times, I look to your paper for news that affects our community and opinions that reflect our diversity.

Last week, a letter to the editor made many allegations about our LGBT Community Center. While I support diversity of opinion, this letter seemed not to be rooted in fact. I am a former volunteer at the Hillcrest Youth Center, and my partner and I contribute financially to The Center at a level that is meaningful to us. For these reasons, I was shocked and a little upset to see the Gay and Lesbian Times print a letter that is riddled with inaccuracies and seems no more than whining “writ large” from an expelled member of the Board of Directors.

In the letter, many of the finest people in San Diego are personally attacked without reason or merit. The author implies there is a conflict with The Center having appointed officials such as City Commissioners on their board. How foolish. The Center should be proud to have attracted this caliber of people with broad management experience. Most other charities in San Diego would give anything they could to attract this level of leadership.

The author also states the Center spends more than $1.3 million of taxpayer funds on salaries, as if it were a bad thing. As a major donor to the Center, and someone who has read their audit, I can tell you about 8% of the budget is spent on administrative salaries – the rest goes directly to programs for our community. This level of administrative spending is a mark any non-profit organization would be hard-pressed to meet

Our center is a service organization. Unlike other worthy charities, the LGBT Center does not provide food or supplies; it supplies service programs that are run by people. Many of these people are volunteers, and many are professional who receive paychecks. I salute them both.

As a taxpayer, I think the Center and it’s staffers – including psychologists, grief and domestic violence counselors, and staff for programs like the Cyber Center, Hillcrest Youth Center and Women’s Resource Center – should be paid, and our community should get our fair share of City, County and Federal grant funding to provide needed programs. To suggest that our community should not seek and receive grants is foolish.

The letter also asserts that the Executive Director is overpaid. Anyone who know how hard she works, her impressive academic and professional credentials, and knows what CEO’s of other organizations with 50 employees and a budget exceeding $3 million make, know that whatever Delores Jacobs is paid, we are lucky to have her at our Center.

The letter also states The Center isn’t committed to diversity, then seems to lambaste The Center for opening a Latino Services program. I am not sure I follow this kind of Voodoo logic.

Lastly, there is an allegation about background checks not being done for volunteers at the Hillcrest Youth Center. As a former volunteer, I can tell you my fingerprinting and criminal background check was the first step of a long and rigorous training process before I was authorized to spend one moment alone in the presence of youth. That same policy holds true today, contrary to the inaccurate statements in the letter last week.

I salute the Center management and board and I hope the Gay and Lesbian Times will fact check letters in the future and not print false allegations that are harmful to our community. In these times, we need to focus on what The Center does, meeting the real needs of our community, not the politics of divisiveness and destruction. We are getting enough of that from Washington, D.C.

Bob Nelson

Dear Editor:

Just a quick correction to the Diana Ross story in the 11-04 issue of the GLT.

In the last paragraph of the first column, it states “In 1967, soon after Florence Henderson’s exodus from the group, the Reflections album was released with an expanded moniker.”

IM sure that Cuautemoc Q. Kish meant to say Florence Ballard and not Florence Henderson.

I just thought that someone would like to make that correction. Won’t “Mrs. Brady” be suprised to know that she was once a Supreme?

David Francis

Dear Editor:

In their letter to the editor in the 11-11-04 issue of the GLT, Bill Beck and David Huskey state that Councilmember Donna Frye has “supported us on a number of recent issues, the majority where the political stakes are not high. Actually, the truth is that Ms. Frye has supported every vote dealing with our LGBT rights that has come before the City Council, regardless of the political stakes. And, I know that she will continue to do so, regardless of political stakes, as Mayor.

Gloria Johnson