Dear Editor:

I am dismayed at the reporting of rumor’s, conjecture, and he/she said she/he said in your article involving Stepping Stone’ sexual harassment allegation. I have noticed a recent focus on internal struggles of agencies that serve the GLTB community and am disheartened that you have chosen to report on gossip and infighting rather than actual news.

You do report that the investigation against Stepping Stone’s Marc D’Hondt was inconclusive but then go on to quote unnamed, confidential, and unconfirmed sources throughout your article. This is not reporting news; this is passing on gossip and rumors that should be relegated to Billy Master’s Filth column. As for named sources, former Board Chair, Steven Johnson’s comments are deplorable, cowardly and show a lack of maturity to make them to the media instead of dealing with his concerns with Ms. Houk in an ethical upfront manner.

I commend the current board of Stepping Stone, Executive Director Cheryl Houk and Marc D’Hondt in not commenting on confidential matters pertaining to employees. It shows great leadership in not reacting in print that should be dealt with privately and professionally. As a human resource professional with much experience in this arena it is often less costly in time, money, energy, and resources to come to a settlement in a sexual harassment case even an unfounded one such as this one, than to continue fighting it, regardless if there is any merit to the allegations. I also note that Mr. D’Hondt continues to work at Stepping Stone, this also reminds me that the allegations were unfounded.

If Ms. Houk should decide to retire I would hope that the GLT focuses on the great accomplishments that she has achieved for the GLBT community, the thousands of lives saved, the innovative programs that she has developed, instead of conjecture and rumors regarding disgruntled employees who refuse to be named. And shame on the GLT for giving them voice and calling it news.

Sheri Pasanen

Dear Editor:

In the quiz ‘Just How Gay Are You? Written by Brian Van De Mark in the October 06, 2005, addition of Gay and Lesbian Times, the answer to question number 29 is misleading.

“What is the color of the triangle used during WWII to identify GLBT individuals in Nazi concentration camps?” Your answer is A. Pink. This answer would be correct if the question were stated: “What is the color of the triangle used during WWII to identify Homosexual Male individuals in Nazi concentration camps?” Gay men were arrested during WWII based on the German Reich penal code Paragraph 175 which outlawed sex between men, later revised to also include any kissing, hugging, or even homosexual fantasies.

From Paragraph 175: “A male who commits lewd and lascivious acts with another male or permits himself to be so abused for lewd and lascivious acts, shall be punished by imprisonment. In a case of a participant under 21 years of age at the time of the commission of the act, the court may, in especially slight cases, refrain from punishment.”

Lesbianism was not mentioned in this law.

The ‘L’ in LGBT stands for Lesbian, and Lesbians/Bisexual Womyn generally were not put into concentration camps just because they were Lesbian. Lesbianism was seen by many Nazi officials as alien to the nature of the Aryan womyn. The womyn who were arrested and sent to concentration camps were labeled ‘sexual deviants’/mentally ill, ‘asocials’ and or prostitutes and made to wear a symbol that was colored black, not pink. Pink triangles were used specifically for gay men. These womyn were used as sex slaves in the camps, raped and or were forced to be victims of medical experiments dealing with reproduction, birth and abortion among other experiments.

“Many lesbians felt little connection to the pink triangle, since it had only been placed on gay men. Lesbian sex was not criminalized by the Nazis in the same way that male-male sex had been. When lesbians were placed in concentration camps, they were often labeled “asocial” and given black triangles. In acknowledgment of a need for a specifically lesbian symbol of oppression and resistance, some lesbians have reclaimed the black triangle rather than the pink.”

written by - Tina Gianoulis www.glbtq.com [Editor’s note: Web site cut from original text].

A book worth reading is “The Men With The Pink Triangle” the personal account and the life story of Heinz Heger, translated by David Fernbach and published by Alyson Publications Inc. 1980.

I bring this issue to your attention as yet another example of Womyn/Lesbians being invisible throughout history and in the LGBTQI movement as it is dictated and written by the white male perspective. Why do we need a Dyke March in addition to the LGBTQI Pride weekend? LESBIAN VISIBILITY!

I encourage those researching and writing about history to ask the question:

Where were the Lesbians/Womyn and what was their perspective historically ?

Wendy Sue

Dear Editor:

Dear Nicole, I hope you don’t mind that a Sister from half way round the world would write back on what you have written to our Sisters in San Diego.

Since the house in San Diego is more or less only newly founded, the audince there might not yet be used to meeting Sisters at any event [Editor’s note: Web site cut from original text].

The Sisters worldwide have worked for people living with AIDS for more than 26 years already. We do all different kinds of community service and events. Our outfits, our habits, our appearances as nuns should not be taken as a kind of kinky drag show, we are nuns concerning to what this expression really means: a nun is a person who donates voluntarily one’s time, nerves, money and engery altruistically to the community; especially in our case in the fight against HIV AIDS and as well as other STDs.

We feel very sorry if you disliked the appearance of the Sisters at AIDS Walk, but yet since AIDS is our major working field it would rather be a loss if we did not participate at such events.

I hope you will understand in talking further to the Sisters in San Diego that we are not circus horses which would be there for silly and funny things, but we do have an absolutely serious backgroud for our work.

Our habits and appearance is a very visible sign for anybody to know: you have someone who is there for you, who cares for you, and who listens to you. We never raise our bad finger and wave it dangerously at people. We hope to make them understand that only conscious joy is pure joy. I hope in getting to know the Sister possibly better in the future you will undertand that we work like grass-root-prevention-teams as well as like ambulant-psycho-social-aid-street-workers. (kind of...please excuse my bad English.)

Once people have understood what the nuns want to tell them it is our “out of Uranus” kind of habit which makes people always remember what the nun says: think about everything first rather than complaining about anything afterwards. So our habits work like a permanent advertisement for a conscious lifestyle. Besides all that our white face is a sign for the threatening death and represents the joy of life which we hold against it.

The Sisters worldwide are there with “our” audience hopefully before they get infected, we are there to help them when they are infected and we would pay our respect to those who have left us.

It is my understanding whatever fun things the Sisters would do at other events they should do a memorial walks in honour of those who have gone before us.

Please take my apologizes for my bad English, and I would be happy to answer any further question you may have.

Peter Vicsay

Mother Piccolettha o.p.i. Berlin Germany