Dear Editor:

Your editorial “San Diego Magazine Needs an Eye Examination,” is right on. Yes, Tom Blair and the magazine owe the GLBT community an apology for selecting Tyler Chase Harper as one of its “50 People to Watch in 2005.”

I sent a letter to San Diego Magazine’s editor expressing my disappointment in their selection of a hateful person like Harper. I received a telephone call from Editor Tom Blair explaining that the Harper was included, not for anything admirable he did, but for the fact that he has a lawsuit against the school district and we will be hearing more about him in 2005.

The subtitle of the San Diego Magazine article was, “Keep an eye on this list of promising personalities.” I pointed out to Mr. Blair that this is totally misleading and only those who read the fine print, realize a couple of losers are thrown in. I added that the accepted definition of promising is something along the lines of: showing potential for favorable or successful development and that Harper certainly does not fit that criteria. Mr. Blair did not offer comment or apology. However, he did print my letter as well as others in this month’s issue of the magazine, along with an explanation of the selection process.

As the President of the San Diego County Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), I and many other PFLAG members spend endless hours a month supporting, educating and advocating on behalf of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered family members and friends. We especially need to continue doing that for our gay youth, as suicide is so high among these teens.

In my explanation to Mr. Blair about what PFLAG is and why we exist, I thought I was probably dealing with a homophobe, or if I was lucky, a member of the “moveable middle.” So let me tell you, when I found out that Mr. Blair, himself, is a part of the GLBT community, and that I’m having to spend my time “preaching to the supposed choir” my blood pressure started to rise. When I found out, on top of that, Harper was invited to an elegant reception for the 50 honorees, my blood pressure went higher. Now today when I read in your editorial that Harper, in front of about 500 guests, was awarded a trophy for his hateful behavior, my blood pressure went off the charts.

Unfortunately, the Tyler Chase Harpers are out there and they are a reason PFLAG has to exist, but we certainly don’t need someone like Mr. Blair, from our own community, perpetuating their cause and making PFLAG’s existence more crucial.

San Diego Magazine, Publisher Kevin Leap, and Editor Tom Blair owe the entire GLBT community, it’s allies and especially it’s youth, a huge apology.

Bobbi Harwood

Dear Editor:

Regarding “The Laramie Project Completes Two-Week Run,” from the Feb. 3 issue, the play’s resounding success is very heartening. It is a testament to the talents of the students and their drama teacher, Mr. Barnes. However it seems a bit more than a vague copout when Superintendent Ryan justified the constraints the Grossmont District placed on the play’s publicity by saying that they promoted the “play in our normal and usual manner, to ensure that it got the same level of publicity that all other plays in our district receive.” Removing expletives from the script I can believe. But this may well be the first time I’ve ever heard of some moratorium for the promotion of a public school play. Must have been all those times the other high school plays had a “Star Wars” line snaking its way around the exterior of the theater. . .a line full of rabid. . .high school play fans. Yeah.

The publicity and press release limitations that were imposed upon the El Cajon High production of the Laramie Project are a direct reflection of a school board and superintendent that do not take stock in the voters, tax-payers, parents, educators, and especially students of East County. When an unlit marquee in a corner of the El Cajon High parking lot is the only indication that anything of interest is happening with the school’s theater department, one has to wonder if the district is trying to hide some dirty little secret. This should come as little surprise with a GUHSD board member—Priscilla Schreiber—who refers to LGBT students as “abominations”. . .with a disengenuous school board comprised of people whose chief ambition is to dismantle public schools and pave the way to a nonsecular voucher-friendly climate that ultimately widens the gap between the haves and have-nots.

There are some ironic but compelling revelations about a school board that hinders a high school play tackling the dilemna of homophobic hate crimes. One is that this officially sanctioned obstruction suggests a hierarchy of denial at best; and, more disturbingly, it underscores how “public servants” deliberately turn a blind eye to the student population that faces statistically overwhelming degrees of marginalization, discrimination, harassment, and hostility in the school districts’ hallways and classrooms. Interestingly, one of the key themes in the play is that many of the inhabitants of Laramie, Wyoming reject the notion that Matthew Sheppard’s death was an indication of a larger societal problem. The GUHSD superintendent’s hindrance of the production plays well into the same apocryphal spirit of denial so prevalant in Laramie. . .denial that any such problem exists in East County public schools. How does the saying go about effectively overcoming a problem by first admitting that there IS a problem?

Mick Rabin

Dear Editor:

While the sentiment expressed in the San Diego Magazines concerning tyler Chase Harpers T shirt worn at school as “an individual perpetuating homophobia and reinforcing hatred of a minority group” is upsetting to many in the gay community, and in the straight, in actuality it is not either one of those things.

The verse : Romans 1:27 (New International Version) New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society NIV at IBS International Bible Society NIV at Zondervan Zondervan 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

The verse is neither homophobic nor hateful. It is what is written in the Book of Romans.

It would be of benefit to read what comes before that statement and also what follows.

While the community, gay and straight, have a problem with this, to a Christian, it is neither homophobic or hateful, it is a statement of Holy Scripture.

It is not reinforcing hatred of a minority group. Most Christians do not hate Gay people, I think it’s time to stop bashing Christians at every turn, many gay people are Christian, many are Born Again.

Ron Mason

Dear Editor:

It seems to me that there have been plenty articles on the problem the homosexual civil rights movement has with extremist Christians who use their beliefs, based on the Bible, to attack homosexuals, as they used the Bible to support slavery and then forced separation of the races.

There are, however, organizations in most of the major religions and churches, of homosexual men and women who remain religious and work to change the views of their churches.

I urge you to have an article on such people and organizations. I have seen a mention of a meeting of such groups I believe held in August of 2004 in Minneapolis.

And there are publications/newsletters for many of these organizations that your readers might find of interest, to help understand those who remain religious inspite of the anti-gay views in most of the churches.

Billy Glover

Dear Editor:

I found your recent editorial extremely disturbing for two reasons. As a woman, and certified personal training consultant with a Master’s level degree in Nutrition, Body Fitness and Acupuncture, I am more than qualified to determine what the definition of a personal trainer is. However you will never see me employed by a man like Mr. Chris Butler. The reason being is that not only am I a woman, but after viewing his Results Fitness website, I cannot imagine a picture of myself topless with my breasts showing would gain much business for him.

Mr. Vannucci’s commentary on how these Gay owned and operated Personal Trainer

companies possessing many similarities to escort type services is quite obvious to anyone with eyes and an IQ over 30. Qualified, real personal trainers are not employed based on their appearance, but by their education and experience. I question not only Mr. Butler’s professionalism, but the reality of what message he is sending to women who are more qualified than any of the young men in his employ.

My final comment is how Frightening Richard Saugus’s letter was. His letter was

very strange and unnerving. His grisly remarks about Dino Vannucci’s chest and

the callousness of his remarks about cancer was very unsettling. And that other man Cajina has the gall to mention “Libel”? Mr. Saugus, the truly frightening thing is that you would spend so much demonic energy monitoring someone you claimed to not be in contact with. You are a terrifying person. Two words Mr. Vannucci: Restraining Order! Brrrrr!

Remember Guys, Women can be exceptional Personal Trainers as well.

Ms. Jessica Stanelun

Dear Editor:

When Steve Yuhas wrote a column for a local Gay paper, it wasn’t long before many started attacking him for being out of step with the Gay established viewpoint in San Diego. His conservative values rankled the bar-owning elite whose opinions pretty much were majority ways of thinking and behaving in this town. They immediately began pressuring his bosses to drop his column. When the bosses resisted, these especially-annoyed owners made it clear that Yuhas’ paper would not be distributed in their places of business. Faced with this threat to their economic livelihood, they caved in and a voice they didn’t want heard was silenced.

Today that voice is now heard once again because these intolerant bullies forgot that in a democracy a value named free speech whether or not one agrees with the speaker – must be heard. Just like for many years Gays and lesbians read the columns of Nicole Ramirez-Murray.

Columns often filled with mean attacks, ridicule and downright viciousness.

So much so that many writers have criticized him in more opinion letters than I’ve read against anyone else in the Gay community. He, nevertheless, uses his vantage point as a weekly commentator as a weapon directed at those who challenge his exalted place in our community. Whom he can’t convince, he opposes. Whom he can’t oppose, he smears. Steve Yuhas invited Nicole to appear on his radio program despite all the years of attacks and smears Ramirez-Murray has unleashed against him. This was very gracious of Steve. Will Nicole return the favor and give Steve a paragraph in his column? Or will he let his connections to a strip club owner (someone he now claims he’s severed ties to) become more excuses for his legendary vitriol?

I hope our community benefits from this debate about whether it’s fitting for a community “leader” to have business ties to an X-rated establishment while sitting on a Gay advisory police board. There already is one scandal over city officials associating with strip club owners. We don’t need another one. I think the day has come for a new breed of more respectable Gay leaders to come forward and take their rightful place in the Gay community.

John Primavera