Dear Editor,

Dave Head Jr.’s letter about Special Delivery (GLT #808, 6/19/03) was in poor taste, uninformed and demands a response. The clients and supporters of Special Delivery San Diego deserve to know the facts.

Special Delivery has served the HIV/AIDS community for over 12 years. All Ryan White contractors undergo regularly scheduled audits by the County of San Diego. While Mr. Head interprets these regular audits as indicative of an “ineffective and inefficient” organization, they, in reality, confirm that we meet all of the standards and provide all of the services required under the Ryan White CARE Act contract.

While Mr. Head emphasizes process, we believe performance is best measured by results. In our 12 years of service, we have provided nearly a million meals to needy members of our community. We would not have been able to do this without a highly efficient operation. Our goal is to provide the nourishment people need to make and keep them healthy. We run the kitchen so that they can focus on what’s important — getting well. We think that’s essential.

Mr. Head’s allegation of a “selfish conflict of interest” with our food provider is without foundation. An independent board of directors selects the provider each year based on quality, service and price. This is no different from many other meal delivery services throughout the United States who routinely contract with caterers, restaurants or churches to provide their meals. We provide each client with five hot meals, five lunches, groceries for the weekend, a half gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and nutritional supplements when needed — all at a per person cost of just $6 a day.

Because our agency is managed and operated completely by volunteers, we have been able to keep our total overhead to less than 15 percent over the last two years. That means that for every dollar our organization collects, 85 percent goes directly to meal packages for our clients. This is possible only because of the support we receive from our volunteers, donors and even our clients.

Mr. Head questions the need for two services. Well, Americans value freedom of choice. We have a choice of physicians, airlines, hospitals, restaurants, grocery stores — and even newspapers who serve our community! Persons living with HIV/AIDS should have the same freedom.

Special Delivery San Diego Executive Board of Directors Tom Abbas, Robert Leyh, Pat Brown and Tony Rodgers

Dear Editor,

In a brief mention in the June 5 edition of the GLT (page 38, “Quote Unquote” by Rex Wockner), it appears that Bravo is delving into dangerous moral territory with the imminent payment of monies to heterosexual men to pretend to be gay for their forthcoming dating series.

Does Jenny Jones really need to be brought to your attention again, or, perhaps more succinctly, the ‘gay for pay’ industry that Los Angeles’ OTHER Hollywood — the porn industry — have rightfully seen fit to curtail.

While there is — perhaps — a sociological angle to Bravo’s show concept, it smacks of a dangerous entrapment sensibility that could prove disastrous to their reputation as an intelligent programming network.

Are we to understand that the heterosexual male participants in “Boy Meets Boy” will be compensated beyond the avowedly homosexual males who participate, and, if so, are they being paid to ‘act’ gay — and what then constitutes acting ‘gay’?

I, for one, think that a suitable number of differing homosexual men would prove to an audience both gay and straight that the gay gene pool is ridiculously diverse, interesting and loveable — the throwing of a ‘wrench’ into your setup will NOT, as you believe, open the tender heart of any sexually ambivalent person (or worse, sexual bigot) to a more open and caring view of the people he comes into contact with every single day.

Allow your participants to be who they are and pursue what they find to be worthy of pursuit — believe me, even on our own, we make for excellent television viewing.

Christopher M. Ford