Dear Editor:

I am writing in response to a letter to the editor in last week’s paper (10/12/06) sent in by Ian Trowbridge. In his letter Trowbridge attacked your editor, Michael Portantino, writing “your publisher still screws around mixing his professional and private life and is a blowhard who has yet to include public service on his resume”. I don’t know how long Trowbridge has been in San Diego, but it is obvious to anyone who knows about the issues in our community, that Portantino is clearly involved in “public service”. I’m also not sure what definition Trowbridge uses in defining “public service”, but I’m assuming he meant Portantino has not held public office. If you google “public service” the top 20 hits only contains a few references to government or civil service. However, one near the top describes Portantino’s activities in his life very accurately. It comes from the web site from Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Service and it states “For service to be of value it must develop through enduring relationships that strengthen a community’s capacity to meet critical needs”. Let’s see, could that have happened when our LGBT community center needed guarantors for its initial mortgage to purchase their building and Portantino not only signed up, but rallied others to help? Or did he help strengthen our community when he served as an openly gay father on his daughter’s catholic school board? Or could it have been when he served on the national board of the Family Pride Coalition? Maybe it just happened through his support of dozens of community organizations over the past couple of decades helping to raise well over a million dollars. I don’t want to appear to be blowing Portantino’s horn, but I appreciate all those in our community that are truly involved in PUBLIC SERVICE, and Portantino is clearly one of our leaders in that arena.

Ron Ferrero

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8283

Dear Editor:

A strong leader always seeks other advise, not relying on quick answers from those who are going to gain from her decisions. In this 301 University project it again shows that Toni Atkins is not fit for the job.

Particularly when her partner is on the CCDC, her campaign manager bought a condo prior to the project being approved (at what price we don’t know?) and her receiving campaign contributions from the developer.

She does not seem to understand that she should have excused herself from the vote on 301 University and allowed the council to freely vote.

She stated that she had not made up her mind on this issue until the hearing. Question, why did she have the residents of Hillcrest testify first then campaign for the project in chambers behind closed doors, before the testimony was completed. KUSI TV reporter, before the hearings had even ended, stated on a TV broadcast that she was in chambers and that the project passed.

She certainly has not represent the residents of Hillcrest and should be recalled for this and her poor financial judgements, which keep getting this city in to legal and financial scapes.

To recall a council member, the recall petition must contain 15% of the districts registered voters. For example in Councilwoman Toni Atkins district, District 3, there are 67,756 registered voters; only 10,163 valid signatures would be needed to launch a recall.

It would take approximately $18,000 for paid gatherers to collect 10,163 signature and only $9000 with volunteers and a few paid gathers. This is very achievable.

George Wedemeyer

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8106

Dear Editor:

It’s too bad the GLT can’t get Toni Atkins to answer any of its questions about her role in the city’s financial crisis, but you can’t really be part of the solution when you’re part of the problem.

I like the analogy in the publisher’s editorial of 9/21/06 about Atkins’ supporters being Kool-Aid drinkers. In my opinion, however, the GLT over the years has been the pitcher that has served the Kool-Aid. This community has a long and storied history as a great big mutual admiration society that never questions the motives of carpet-baggers, charlatans, and grifters coming to town, being wined, dined, and lauded by our prominent community members, given a Nicky or some silly Mr. or Ms. Gay-whatever title, and then silently slipping out in the night when yet another scandal erputs around them. The community’s collective memory lasts about as long as it takes the most recent flameout to pack his or her bags and move on, making room for the next social or political suck-up to start appearing around town and in the pages of the GLT.

Within the past year, which would have been at the height of the pension scandal publicity, Toni Atkins was awarded yet another of our community’s meaningless and pointless kiss-butt awards, the GLT’s Person of the Year. Were the questions being asked now with such fervor being asked back then? It was clear to anyone half paying attention to the unfolding events that any member of the city council since 1996 has had some role in this matter. So why was Toni Atkins being called to the stage to receive an award rather than called on the carpet for her actions as a councilmember? How is it possible for a truly independent publication to be a watchdog for our community when it is giving awards to politicians? No wonder Toni Atkins questions the current motives of the GLT. At this point the drama so compellingly portrayed by the GLT about Atkins’ stonewalling is way too much, way too late to matter. As someone with a strong connection to this publication, I’m glad to read that this matter has renewed the publisher’s commitment to the GLT and to the community. Rather than playing journalist for simply for dramatic effect it would behoove the community if the GLT spent more time doing real investigative reporting and less time handing out statues.

Jim Krupiarz

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8149

Dear Editor:

I am a strong advocate for re-owning and re-empowering traditionally disparaging terms used against our community. “Queer,” for example, which is related to terms meaning “curve” (i.e., “not straight”), “twist”, “torque”, and “to make angry”, is a word with a great deal of power. It suggests that its bearers have the ability to look at things from a perspective outside the mainstream and the power to create change using that perspective. “Faggot”, and associated adjectives such as “flaming”, are historical references to the so-called Burning Times in medieval Europe when Gay men were burned along with women under charges of heresy and witchcraft.

As much as I love these words, I am utterly mystified as to why the management of the former Hamburger Mary’s would choose “Urban Mo’s” as the new name for their bar and grill.

“Mo” is a disparaging, belittling, demeaning term derived from “homosexual”, which is in itself problematic. Homosexual was originally coined to describe our (supposed) sexual pathology and applies a strictly genital definition to Gay folk. It defines us solely by what we do in bed, and our sexuality is, I maintain, our least significant distinguishing characteristic. Choosing the genitally derived “mo” as a name for a Gay bar is very much akin to naming a bar for women “Slash”.

I have been a regular of Hamburger Mary’s for many years and I have spoken with a number of other regulars about the new name. The most positive remarks any of them have made have been that they felt the name was “really dumb” or “lame”. That’s not much in the way of positive. Should any non-Gay establishment have used the term “mo”, it would have been immediately, widely, and correctly condemned for being homophobic. To choose a new name that is at best “really dumb” and at worst homophobic is an extremely poor business decision for the management of a Gay bar and grill. Alienate your customers much?

As for me, I am offended enough by “Urban Mo’s” that I am boycotting the establishment while that name stands. I urge other customers of the former Hamburger Mary’s who dislike the name, whether because they think it is offensive or just because they think it is really lame, to contact the management and ask them to find a new, non-disparaging name.

Until they do, don’t eat at Mo’s.

Rev Keith W Ramsey