Dear Editor:

To say shame on President Bush for spending all that money (raised by the inauguration committee and donations) on his official inauguration is ‘short sited’ at best. I’ve tolerated Nicole’s insipid insights to the world in which she lives in, but would she say that about John Kerry if he were to spend that same amount for his inauguration? I think Nicole needs to move on (like she preaches about the Mayor’s race) and just live with the fact that like all of us, we may not want President Bush in office (he has more pressing issues to deal with in the next 4 years), but we have to acknowledge the fact that we have him for another 4 more years...with lessons learned from John Kerry’s failures, let’s just hope that in 2008, there is a more likeable and a more qualified candidate that we can honestly cast our vote for.

Ariel Aldana

Dear Editor:

I am truly sorry you back barebacking. What you are experiencing from all the letters, mine included under “unnamed” is showing you there is growing movement from within the “Gay Society” that is saying enough is enough.

Pornography ruins more lives than any other addiction. Period. That is something isn’t it?

Pornography addiction, leads to broken families, broken relationships, the furtherance of HIV infections, the breakdown of personal relationships.

People that are involved in it, grow further and further from “reality” until they can see no difference between what is in magazines or internet.

I commend these men and women that are speaking out against leaders performing in such “barback videos, or any of them”

This is not a vendeta, I know personally both Dave Smith and Mike Zimmerman. What is in question here is, “Is it right and moral (the difference between right and wrong) that an organization that accepts public monies to have prevention of HIV education classes, is it right to accept money from Pornography.

Personally I will not support any group or organization that raises money from, or has any connection to pornography. HIV and AIDS are not laughing matters. Being Gay does mean I do not have morals, I lived many years locked in the addiction of Porno, I have gotten ought, and I will do anything I can to educate and offer recovery from this wretched way of life, (addiction to porno).

You are mistaken about this being a vendetta, it is not, it is about health, and responsibility to oneself and their community. With love and a great deal of hope for the future.

Ron Mason

Dear Editor:

The years continue to pass, and as a Gay man, I place great hope in knowing attitudes are changing. Still, it is not enough to be allowed a seat on the proverbial bus. We pay our taxes, raise and teach children, minister to the sick, serve our government, military communities, built buildings, roads, produce products, discover and administer cures, invent and operate the means and methods to improve, sustain and save lives, care for parents, give time and money to charities and generally serve humanities common core values of kindness, forgiveness, charity, love, understanding and tolerance. We sacrifice and die in defense of our nation and of other nations who enjoy freedoms, rights, protections and lives we are denied. We need and deserve the right to choose which seat we take in this land of the free.

Gays and Lesbians don’t destroy the families or family values of opposite sex relationships, nor do we want ours destroyed. Our intent isn’t destruction of religion. The spiritual or religious among us is no less significant than in straight community. We ask for no more rights than our fellow citizens. We want only the protections and rights afforded our counterparts of opposite sex attraction so we can create and maintain supporting family structures. Holding us to all the responsibilities and giving us few rights is as senseless as telling 18 year citizens they are old enough to kill and die for their country but not old enough to be trusted with a voice.

Religious and social fanatics seem bent on a proven dangerous path. Germany, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, Ireland, England, France, indeed most if not all nations have at one time allowed fanatics to rule without regard to the freedoms of all of its citizens. The result has always been graveyards filled with their innocent soldier citizens so that fanatics can force their way of life on others.

For many Gays and Lesbians, life has been a process of tying the joys and sorrows of our secret lives in tidy little packages and storing them in the closet where those of opposite sex orientation don’t have to deal with them. Imagine where the paths of millions of lives and countless families might have led had closets never been built. What wonders would the world have gained we been embraced by our families and friends in an atmosphere of supportive awareness? Alas, our lives were kept as dirty little secrets tied in neat little packages and our creative energy wasted on keeping them there. Why and to what end?

William E. Kelly

Dear Editor:

Sportscasters and writers will forever refer to the late defensive end, Reggie White, as the “Minister of Defense.” I will always remember White as a terrific football player who shocked the hell out of me when he began using his celebrity as a bully pulpit to espouse hateful, anti-gay rhetoric.

White was a minister who used his power to spew hate. Now that would have seemed like an oxymoron save for the fact that the so-called “religious right” – which are neither spiritual nor correct – made it so fashionable from the Reagan administration forward.

And please, let’s not hear or read any of that bullpucky about how White hated the sin, but loved the sinner. Part of White’s legacy is that he will be remembered as a bigot among the NFL’s gay fans, especially to fans of the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers during his tenure with those teams.

Lee A. Schoenbart