Dear Editor:

KUDOS for a very well written, deal with it, in your face and factual article. This problem needs to be talked about a lot. It’s here and isn’t going away.

SHAME on you for not providing a list of email addresses, phone numbers, 12-step groups, etc., for those who need and want help due to reading the article.

There are resources in the community that need to be offered to your readers. The HNRC offers The Edge Program and The Adhere Program that can be of great benefit to your readers who need help. I was specifically saddened that no information was provided about the group that Tom Wall facilitates if someone wants to join the group.

Again, the article was probably one of the top 3 best articles I have ever read in your publication. Now, please take the next step and do a Part II to focus on treatment. As a former user, I know and relate to the problems mentioned. I HAD to stop using or I was going to die due to health problems.

There is a whole other problem that I have been seeing that is directly related to this issue that was barely discussed. I was on A4A one evening and only 27 out of 1006 online admitted to being POZ. That number is WRONG! I saw several guys who I know are POZ online and they have NEG in their profiles due to rejection issues and/or drug use. It’s not right. But, I do understand why they lie about it. I must say it is tempting at times. But, I believe in karma. Therefore, I remain honest.

I really feel that it is perhaps time an article be run on what safe sex really is. Safe sex doesn’t mean to reject POZ guys who are honest enough to admit it and have unprotected sex with guys who SAY they are NEG.

Thanks for listening and the great PNP article.

Brian Jackson

Dear Editor:

Catholic Bishops Should be Fair to Lesbian/Gay People when they Meet in Chicago June 16 – 18, 2005.

As the Catholic Bishops of the United States gather in Chicago for their Spring meeting at the Fairmont Chicago, the Rainbow Sash Movement is renewing its call for dialogue. This is a an opportunity not only to dialogue, but is a teaching moment for the Bishops to explain to Chicago’s Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Community the church’s traditional exclusionary stance on gay rights, if the Bishops have the courage.

The Rainbow Sash Movement believes that gay rights in the areas of benefits and opportunity are, indeed, a significant element of the “gospel of life” teaching advocated by the late Pope John Paul II. We would remind our bishops not all gay and lesbian causes fall outside the church’s doctrinal bounds.

Some who believe in Biblical literalism find sanction for their anti-homosexuality there, but selectively ignore Biblical injunctions to execute people who work on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2) and to crack down on those who get haircuts (Leviticus 19:27) or who wear clothes with more than one kind of thread (19:19). There’s no Biblical mention of lesbianism—are we to think that male homosexuality is wrong but female homosexuality is not? The Bishops realize that Biblical Literalism is not our tradition, and yet we are met with silence for political benefit.

The Rainbow Sash Movement is asking the Catholic Bishops of the United States to be logical and fair. It is neither logical nor fair to deny any one access to five things—income, education, health care, housing or justice—on the basis of his or her race, sex, creed, color or sexual orientation.

In memory of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadine of Chicago it is appropriate for us to call for a common ground.

Joe Murray