Dear Editor:

This is in response to our recent legal decision on November 17,2006 concerning medical marijuana.

I am glad that our judicial legislation is being upheld by fair minded people. Thank you judge Levitt you have a backbone. As a state we decided in 1996 to allow medical use of marijuana..In the decade since our federal government has sought to persecute persons who use it to just survive. I wish that his ruling not be revised. As a person who has been diagnosed as having AIDS Waisting Syndrome pot has allowed me to be able to eat and drink without vomiting. Everyday I had a living horror of knowing as soon as I ate I needed to be beside a toilet. I lost friends and self worth to his desire. All that marijuana has done is give me back my friends and dignity, now they want to rob me of it? Please do not allow this to happen. Yell or scream it if you have to just get the message out that our laws are not being followed. Stop another decade of indecision. Empower me to live free from fear of jail and harassment. It can be done, it should be done.

E J Powers

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8562

Dear Editor:

I’ve just read Nicole Ramirez Murray’s petulant rant against Jackie Beat and it left me wondering just how carefully you screen your writers. And how carefully Ms. Ramirez Murray actually read the column that she was ripping apart.

Anybody who’s ever read Jackie’s columns or seen her perform knows that Jackie plays a CHARACTER. She’s larger than life and hyperbolic in the name of entertainment, and we as her fans wouldn’t have it any other way. Anybody who doesn’t recognize this (right away) is pretty thick and shouldn’t be writing a column for a metropolitan gay publication.

Get a sense of humor, Nicole! And a good editor, for the love of God. (Oh, sorry – “Godess!”)

Aaron Smith

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8585

Dear Editor:

That piece about Jackie Beat was mean-spirited and nasty. Shame on you!

In a world filled with opponents for the LGBTQ community, it’s hard enough to combat everyday hatred from our enemies, and then you sling this mud? I only wish that other people show you the compassion, understanding and kindness that you obviously lack.

Kyle Quandel

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8585

Dear Editor:

I recently had the opportunity to read the writings of Nicole Murray-Ramirez and felt compelled to comment. As a fellow editor (perhaps of a slightly lesser known publication) I understand the importance of having opinion writers who have incredibly strong opinions and no bones about sharing them. They’re a gold mine, really. They rile the audience and keep them coming back for more. As an independent publication, I don’t face any pressures to censor my writers, so I don’t. Not unless they write something that makes me more than just a little uneasy. It’s my magazine, after all, and with it I will do what I want. That said, I continually encourage my writers to express themselves as best they can, and have only one rule that must be followed. Use your smarts.

On a couple of very pleasant occasions, we have had the opportunity to feature the writings of Jackie Beat. Talk about someone with opinions!

She’s big, she’s bold, and she’s completely in your face. This turns off a lot of people. And, truthfully, she’d turn me off too, if it weren’t for one thing. She’s smart. Incredibly smart, actually. And it comes across best when she writes.

Something Jackie Beat, nor any of my other cherished writers, would ever do is trash someone (or something they’ve written) without fully educating themselves first. In the case of Nicole Murray-Ramirez and her rant about Jackie’s column in Cybersocket, all she really had to do to educate herself was take a deep breath and read through Jackie’s entire column.

At just under 1,000 words, it really doesn’t take all that long to read.

And if making it all the way through proves to be a chore, then feel free to skip ahead to something else, and be sure to skip the uninformed commentary.

I would like to give added props to Jackie Beat for having the courage to be herself; something my magazine believes is nearly impossible to do.

And Jackie Beat is not just an ugly man in a dress. I have had the pleasure of once meeting Jackie as a man, while I happened to be the one in the dress. It was surreal. He wasn’t ugly; a little bitchy maybe, but that’s likely because I was trying to be bitchy, too. Hey- It’s not easy wearing high heels and a dress that fits so tightly around your waist!

And, sometimes, it’s hard to shake the character you have come to adopt for yourself while doing performances on a nightly basis. I would have expected nothing less.

If Nicole Murray-Ramirez wrote for me, I would tell her this: If the comic genius behind the words or the ego of Jackie Beat is lost on you, then so be it. Skip ahead to the next column. But don’t comment on what you’ve only skimmed through. It’s a shame, really, because you’re clearly not smart enough to recognize someone with real talent. But at least you’ve finally generated a buzz.

Ron Robbins

Toaster Magazine

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8585

Dear Editor:

I’m approaching 70 and I’ve been through most of the phases your feature on living single mentions in your 16 Nov ‘06 Issue.

As I ease into the third-third of my life, my goal is to be a positive senior role model rather than the troll-like stereotype my generation put up with in our thirties. I did my share of the heavy lifting ‘back in the day’ (see Advocate 400 List in Issue #400-8-7-84) but led an iconoclastic life as well. I’m in the Eagle virtually every night for a few late night drinks and always manage to enjoy myself. I never get any sense that there is an age barrier for me; guys of all ages chat me up and I’m always surprised at the number of times I get comped, a real compliment.

I gave myself permission to remain single decades back; no partnership is better than a dishonest one. Monogamy was out of the question to which I knew I could never pay ‘lip service’ to a partner. Cheating too was out of the question, something one sees a lot nowadays. My bottom line was to be true to myself and it has really worked for me.

Lastly, I think gay partnering is over-rated: I did everything alone and without the drama and stress, that I set out to do.

Norvell Tom Giles

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8528

Dear Editor:

I am writing this to challege the assertions of columnist Robert DeKoven concerning the career of former Gov. Jerry Brown. He mentions that Brown “signed the law that made consensual sex between adults legal in California.”

In truth, Brown left the state in 1975 to allow his Lt. Governor Mervynn Dymalley to sign this bill in his absence. Being a Jesuit-trained Roman Catholic and a confirmed bachelor, Brown did not want to be known as the most pro-Gay governor in the country while he nurtured ideas to run for president. Next, DeKoven fibs again when he mentions Chief Justice Rose Bird. She was never “recalled” (his quotation marks) as he says in 1984. In fact, she and two other judges were simply not re-confirmed in a regular election in 1986. Bird was not only notorious for reversing every death sentence that came before her...but often strayed beyond whatever evidence there was to be considered in a case and substituted her personal opinion instead. Her rejection was inevitable to restore a healthy balance to a Supreme Court so narrowly structured.

DeKoven then states: “I met with Brown last week. I won’t go into detail here...I’ll wait ‘til after the election.” In his talk with Brown did he bring up why the ex-Gov. turned his back on gays in 1982 when he ran for U.S. Senator and appointed a homophobic Chief of Staff? In truth, after two failed runs for president, Brown moved rightward and distanced himself so much that Gay leaders like Robert Lynn openly complained that it was now very difficult getting in to see Jerry. Gore Vidal, Brown’s Gay opponent, remarked to me personally that “Jerry’s door was only open if you were an Air Force colonel in need of a new bomber!” But his new disguise failed to fool the voters and Brown lost that election as well as yet another run for president, running this time to Bill Clinton’s left. Today, he offers us yet another disguise with a bride in tow and surrounding himself with every police chief in the state to try in vain to live down his image as a flake. The San Diego Gay Democratic Club saw through this latest ruse and promptly endorsed his opponent in the primary. Tough Jerry doesn’t hack it, and when DeKoven tells us Jerry “tells it like it is” we wonder what flavor Kool Aid the professor likes to drink?

John Primavera

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8344

Dear Editor:

Hello, this is Boyce Hinman of the Lambda Letters Project. Today, I’d like to share my thoughts about the results of the election on November 7. The Democrats have won control of the US House of Representatives. As of the date this was written they were one seat away from winning control of the US Senate. Currently the Democratic Senate candidate from Virginia is in the lead, but it is a very close race. The winner has not been declared yet.

On the national level, the advances of the Democrats are certainly good news in general. But I would caution people not to get too excited. During the campaign candidates of both parties were rushing to the center. Many of those who won, did so on a promise of moderation. There will be good progress on many issues. However LGBTI issues are still considered far left by many and it will be a struggle to get many legislators, even Democrats, to vote the right way on these issues.

If the Democrats do take control of the Senate, they will have a paper thin majority. And neither Republicans nor Democrats always vote as a block. Some Senate Democrats are sure to vote no on bills of importance to the LGBTI community. In summary, I would say the prospects in Congress look much better for the LGBTI community. But we still have a lot of work to do.

The situation is similar in the California State Legislature. In the State Assembly, Democrats and Republicans have exactly the same number of seats. The Democrats have a clear majority. They also have a majority in the Senate. However, they may have lost one Senate seat. In Senate District 34, Garden Grove, a Republican is ahead by 2 tenths of one percent. That had been a Democratic Senate seat. The outcome in that district is not final yet and we will have to wait to get the final verdict.

Again, the outcome of LGBTI bills next year is not certain. Take the same sex marriage bill for example. Assembly Member Leno plans to introduce it again in the next legislative session. But the last time he introduced it, it passed the State Senate and Assembly with the bare minimum of votes needed to pass it in each house. Then the Governor vetoed it. Many Democrats will be afraid to vote for the new bill. Some will assume the Governor will veto it again and will not be willing to spend their political capitol by voting for a controversial bill they expect to be vetoed anyway.

In summary, the November 7 elections are basically good news for the LGBTI community. The future looks hopeful. But none the less, we are going to have to work for the things we want to accomplish. I hope you will join the effort.

Boyce Hinman