Finally: a gay letter
When I saw “Finally: a Gay Pride Section” (SW, 6/24), I was happy that the Weekly at last saw the need to include us. Now I am baffled as to why, when you finally decide to do so, it is with mostly negative articles.
Never mind that they were written by gay writers; the point is that you finally do something and you couldn’t find one nonjaded, positive story to run?
I have been out for 23 years and have been in a few “first parades” . . . yes, they are exciting, but do we always have to be the forerunners? Can’t we just have an annual parade with the same old thing if that’s how we want to do it? Yeah, I’d like it more fun and cutting edge, but really, does anyone go after the St. Patrick’s parade or the Seafair parade or the Chinese parade and tell them they need to do better and better things every year and move it outside of their community? Come on! Let us celebrate, and if you don’t want to go, then stay home and watch the New York and San Francisco parades on the news at night.
Yeah, that’s celebrating, all right!
Julia Kaplan
via e-mail
Gerrard’s bottom
I just read Frances Gerrard’s article on six ways lesbians can seduce straight women (“How to seduce straight women,” 6/24). I really liked number five—I thought it was really classy—but I’m sure the article was supposed to be the top 10 ways, and the bottom four must have gotten misplaced. I think I was able to fill them in.
7) Read the obituaries. Every day, young men are getting shot, freak construction accidents happen, they’re killed at war. They always list if there is a surviving widow. You know in a day or two she is gonna be real horny.
8) Read the police beat. Every week there are dozens of wife beatings in every major city across this great land. Nothing says “Gosh, I’d sure like to get eaten out by someone who won’t beat me up” like a restraining order.
9) Find adult female survivors of sexual abuse by dear old dad. Like stealing candy from a baby.
10) Rape. Look, those straight women just don’t know what it is they are missing. Tie ’em up, show them, I’m certain they will come around. You’ll be doing them a favor, really.
Oh, now I get it. As the editor, you thought that these were maybe a bit racy and decided to use the red pen. That doesn’t explain that abortion clinic one, though. . . .
Darin Erickson
Boston
Vanilla nice
I have to admit there is some truth to Inga Muscio’s article (“Gay shame, gay pride,” 6/24), but if you stopped and maybe proofread your bitter story, you would have seen that the answer to racism, hatred, and self-righteousness is not solved by a drag queen at Nordstrom.
I live in San Francisco, and pride is everywhere. I actually support the “Fuck Pride” movement, which is live your daily life—I mean, come on, it’s 1999! I have compassion for those who got us where we are, and it is our responsibility to give thanks and move on. Yes, Inga, there are a lot of self-righteous white gay men out there, but so what. If you don’t want to have self-righteous white gay males as a part of your life, I suggest you don’t go looking for it. I actually find most American people in general a bit too “vanilla” and caught up in TV-land, but a large majority of people are genuine, honest, and true to themselves, any race, any time. Chances are you won’t find them in the Castro or Capitol Hill, because, honey, those communities are merely tourist attractions.
Ryan McGavin
San Francisco
Go, Roger
In what will probably be a blizzard—given the article’s timing—of lavender rage directed at a perceived traitor of Faggotted Pride, here is one missive of support for Mr. Downey’s measured, insightful, even eloquent essay (“Pride kills,” 6/24). His words are carefully chosen; his observations cogent.
Let’s face it: veraciousness does sometimes hurt, but as an apostle once wrote, it will also set you free.
(And, yes, I am a homosexual.)
Laurence Ballard
Seattle
Slade’s gold fever
Slade Gorton sure showed he cares about campaign donations and not Washington citizens (Quick & Dirty, “Battle Mountain takedown,” 7/8). What’s now being shown is that some aged generation’s lust for gold is even more stupid than most thought.
Hey, Slade, and you mining execs and board members: In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re no longer on the gold standard. Even governments are learning that. European governments are starting to sell their gold. Switzerland sold its first 25-ton lot last week. Many more tons will be sold through the end of the year. Not surprisingly, the price of gold is expected to drop significantly.
Even if there ever was a good reason, poisoning wilderness for short-term greed is wrong. Federal lands belong to all of us. We have a right to keep them pristine. Political graft should not allow a few people to make a tiny profit over a few years and leave the rest of us to clean up after them.
If the Mountain Gold Company wants more gold, tell ’em to go to Europe and buy it. There’s plenty to be had and it won’t ruin our environment.
David Teich
Bellevue
Geov’s idiocy
The 1999 Primate Freedom Tour is about a lot more than “torturing small animals.” Geov Parrish would know this, but he obviously has not spoken to people on the tour and he certainly has not read the literature that the tour is distributing (see Impolitics, “Torturing Small Animals,” 6/17).
Having worked with Craig Rosebraugh for years trying to get public forums on primate research, I can say that Mr. Parrish blatantly misquoted him. The requests have never been for a forum on the treatment of the animals. We have requested discussion of what, if any, benefits have come out of the research. The public has a right to an answer, especially because we are paying for the research with our tax money.
Where does Mr. Parrish get his information about medical history and about how exactly his life has been saved? Did he go to the primary sources and conclude that animal research saves lives and is a good research method, or is that just what he has always been told? We all know that what is called “history” and what we have been taught is not always fact, and that includes medical history. Thousands of doctors and scientists have come out against animal research on purely scientific and medical grounds because it is not working and is in fact endangering human life. I don’t agree that it is “safe to say” that his life was saved by animal research. My own investigation has indicated that the discovery of insulin, for example, did not come from animal research.
Mr. Parrish’s characterization of the 1999 Primate Freedom Tour as “a summer vacation in which young protesters go and get themselves arrested at animal research facilities” is pure idiocy. Once again he has no idea what he is talking about, or he has a really weird idea of leisure. The tour is grueling work, involving people of all ages who believe that primate research must be stopped in order to save human as well as non-human lives.
Elaine Close
Portland, Oregon
No Blob builder
Re: Roger Downey on Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project (“Is Experience necessary?” 7/8): I’ve read over Downey’s metaphor three times now (guy with Sonics tickets? Little League pitcher?) and I still don’t get it. Just what is Paul Allen’s crime in the eyes of Downey? The guy has a lot of money and is building a visionary tribute to Jimi Hendrix designed by the world-renowned Frank Gehry. That he is soliciting private arts money is a problem because he also gives huge amounts to the arts?
Yes, Paul Allen’s wealth does give him some influence in the world. Get over it. We should be thankful that he is imaginative and civic-minded enough to build the Experience Music Project and to save the Cinerama, neither of which wins him any credit from the Weekly. Instead you can only make jokes comparing the EMP to the late Lower Queen Anne Blob, thus proving the provinciality of your vision and narrowness of your horizons. Is this parochial attitude the reason why successful Seattle artists soon leave town (Mark Morris, Chuck Close) unless they totally suck (Dale Chihuly), in which case they stick around to get ass-kissing KCTS specials made about them?
David Stoesz
Seattle
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