Dear Editor:

In response to Carson McGregors letter to the editor, James Hartline is not a Catholic. He is a member of the very vocal and Homosexual hating church, MVCF (Mission Valley Christian Fellowship) This church is engaged much more in politics than Christian teaching. which could place it in danger of losing its tax free status, I think. It’s Pastor Leo Geovinitti, makes it perfectly clear that homosexuals are not welcome in his church. I know, I was a victim of his veiled hatred some years back. He prayed that I be covered in sores so that no one would ever want me. This is his response to gay people. No love, just veiled hatred. It has taken me years to heal from that insensitive prayer.

James Hartline, is a member of that church. Have you seen pictures of James Hartline, he is so angry, the veins on his neck are popping out.

MVCF is more interested in destroying gay people and abortion than the gospel message.

Ron Mason

Dear Editor:

Anthony Baldman’s report in your April 7 issue on the San Diego County Health and Human Services’ March 28 meeting on crystal methamphetamine raises more questions than it answers — like why this meeting was held in the County’s redoubt on Rosecrans Street instead of at the Center and why it wasn’t given wider advance publicity. The article also reveals a serious flaw in the Queer community’s overall approach to dealing with drug abuse within our ranks: that the dangers of drugs like crystal is seen entirely in terms of their supposed ability to facilitate “HIV infection.”

There are far more immediate dangers to drug abuse in general and crystal in particular. It’s long been known that crystal in and of itself destroys the human immune system. Long-term users experience serious physical and psychological complications — just ask the family of John McCusker or anyone who’s read the toxicology report on him. It’s well known in the medical literature that ALL addictive drugs break down the immune system over time by creating elevated levels of antibodies which can be read by standard HIV screenings as a “positive” result — leading to the ironic possibility that what we know as “AIDS” is really a long-term immune system breakdown caused by recreational drug use and other toxic factors, and it is the immune breakdown that leads to a “positive” HIV test, rather than HIV infection leading to immune breakdown.

For nine years I have led the San Diego chapter of H.E.A.L. (Health, Education, AIDS Liaison), part of a global network of organizations which educate and inform people about alternative scientific views on AIDS and HIV. In 1999, when we met in the building that was then a union hall and is now the Center, we presented scientists David Rasnick and Stefan Lanka, both of whom warned us that the practice of combining crystal and Viagra during sex was setting the stage for a potential spike in AIDS cases among Gay men. Their logic was that crystal increases the sex drive but interferes with getting an erection (hence the description of crystal among many Gay men as “the ultimate bottom’s drug”), while Viagra and its clones work similarly to nitrate “poppers”

they dilate the blood vessels and thus send blood rushing to the penis to facilitate erection. This combination of two of the drugs most responsible for AIDS — according to the alternative scientific theory that AIDS is a toxic condition rather than an infectious disease — is sufficient to predict and explain a growing AIDS epidemic among Queer men without recourse to the ever more exotic theories about a single “supervirus” supposedly to blame for it all.

If the Queer community leadership is really serious about taking on the heavy levels of alcohol and drug use in our community, it will take a multi-faceted approach, including accurate, non-judgmental education on the real dangers of drug use; programs to encourage people to de-link drugs and sex, since people who need drugs to perform sexually are less likely to use risk reduction and more likely to endanger their partners (and not just by exposing them to STD’s); and an honest approach to the AIDS issue that allows the discussion of toxic as well as infectious theories about the syndrome — and the role of drug use as a direct cause of immune suppression as well as an indirect cause via STD infection.

Mark Gabrish Conlan

Dear Editor:

Dead men can’t defend themselves! Yes, last weeks cover popped butt your lead article (J. McCusker’s Autopsy) pooped!

Your over indulgent article is not news. It is words and numbers that together insight viscous innuendo. Informs, NO. Titalate, YES.

I mean, who really cares? Oh yeah I forgot about those small minded snippy sinister sisters that every gay community has. (RE. Tom Gary’s letter to the editor)

This gentleman (J. McCusker), whom I have never met, had drugs in his system, so what! Good god he ran a nightclub. Those in the nose know drugs are an occupation hazard (I can bet you a quarter right now an employee at the Hotel Del just did a line!!)

He had multiple drugs without a prescription and proper containers. Hey who doesn’t when they go on trips?

Your article reminds me of that “20-20” news magazine newscast about Matthew Shepard. It claimed he knew he was HIV Positive, had a death wish and set in motion his demise by setting up those murderers to kill him.

My point is these revelations aren’t newsworthy butt are only for purposes of sinsationalism.

Dead gentlemen cannot defend themselves. Shame on you!!

D. Tourtellotte

Dear Editor:

After reading your editorial about John McCusker’s death and drug use I felt that it is again time for me to offer my anti-drug decal to the San Diego Gay community for free.

Any Gay and Lesbian Times reader who wants a decal/bumpersticker that says “REAL FRIENDS DON’T ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO DRUGS” can get on by sending a business sized self addressed stamped envelope to C.S.T., 3989 Texas Street, San Diego, CA 92104-2714

Jim Noel