Dear Editor,

So here we are, one day away from gay Pride weekend. Men have been working on their bodies all year to show them off in a parade, at a festival, everywhere. Suddenly a nice body, a tan, some hair color and tight pair of shorts makes them gods. We’ve come a long way from wanting respect to attaining respect. Too bad the respect is laughed upon when we make spectacles of ourselves in a bawdy, sassy, disturbed, crazy and ironic parade. Somehow the stereotypes of gays are bolstered as we represent our community with dykes on bikes (topless), drag queens, half-naked men, loud obnoxious music, alcohol, drugs and blatant sexual acts on public streets. I’m appalled and I’m gay. I know there are hard-working gay and lesbian families that vote, pay taxes and contribute time and money. They, the proud, are also represented in the parade, but because we are a media-driven society, these men and women are never glamorized. I wish I could celebrate, but I’m embarrassed. Sorry.

Isaac Riddle

San Diego

Dear Editor,

I’ve been going to or marching (as I did this year with the gay vets) in parades for 30 years and never cease to be amazed by the egregious and venal rhetoric spewing from the bullhorns of the fundies. I think it is time for them to turn their energies on themselves and ask how it is that they keep producing so many of us. So many of us are the product of the misbegotten biblical piety that they shoved at us in our younger years. I went to a small Christian college for small Christians and couldn’t get away fast enough when I had the chance. In a twist of irony almost too painful to contemplate, we practice what they preach. They are the ones who need forgiveness, not us.

Tom Giles

South Park