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"Dykes against gender"? Oh, please. Soyon Im's article on gender issues in the dyke community ["Gender warriors," 6/22] was thoughtful and well written, but sadly her editor seems not to have read it before writing the blurbs. Every single person interviewed in the article has a gender and knows what it is. We didn't say we are "against" gender, but that our genders are more complex than what most of the world wants to see. Gender is my favorite sex toy, and I wouldn't want to live in a world without it. The article's subtitle, "Butch dykes are overthrowing gender categories," makes matters worse by ignoring the fact that several of the women quoted in the article are FEMMES. Femmes do every bit as much as butches to subvert simplistic gender categories, and Soyon noted this in her article. But her editors, like much of the rest of the world, queer and straight alike, have made femmes invisible yet again.
RAVEN GILDEA
SEATTLE
Shoot the oppressor!
In response to your article "Gays & guns" [6/22]: This is exactly the kind of straight- (if you'll pardon the pun) forward, commonsense, HONEST journalism that is sorely lacking today in the media in general, and with regard to firearms in particular. OF COURSE gays want, and should have, guns to defend themselves. Every oppressed minority in history has learned, the hard way, that oppressors can't oppress an oppressee who shoots back.
In America, privately owned firearms are used to prevent crimes about six times as often as they are used to commit them—as many as 2.5 million times a year, according to Department of Justice statistics. The reasons are simple: Guns SAVE lives, because criminals prefer UNARMED victims.
Straight, not narrow,
KARL LEFFLER
PORTLAND, OR
Stand up to fear!
I would like to thank Knute Berger and Seattle Weekly for the well-written, informative, and objective article entitled "Gays & guns" [6/22]. The decision to own a firearm for lawful self-protection is a deeply personal one. For those law-abiding citizens who make the decision to acquire a gun, proper training and a commitment to safe handling and storage is vital.
I commend members of Cease Fear, as well as all others within the Gay and Lesbian community who have chosen to stand up to fear, hatred, and anti-gay violence, regardless of whether a firearm is part of that choice.
CHARLES F. MASON
SEATTLE
Guns are dead wrong
After reading Knute Berger's "Gays & guns" [6/22], an article that I find completely absurd, I was moved to take action in the form of a stern warning to Cease Fear; WATCH OUT FOR WHAT YOU PROMOTE. It is a sad day when any group of people gets together to promote firearms as a means of safety from attack. Fact: "There are 43 shootings of family members or acquaintances, in suicides, nonjustifiable homicides, and accidents for each instance in which a gun at home is used to kill in self-defense" (Kellerman, Al, New England Journal of Medicine, 1986). What this boils down to is that, although abuse and hate crimes directed at sexual minorities deserve serious attention and action, the use of firearms as a means of protection from these crimes will actually cause the deaths of more gays and lesbians than protect them.
As a child of a lesbian mother and the sister of a gay brother, I grew up in Missouri and have seen firsthand several instances of violence directed at myself and my family. What I can't understand is that by promoting firearms as protection, Cease Fear is adding to the problem. Fact: "The percentage of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth who reported having attempted suicide (that required medical treatment) in the previous 12 months was 4.5 times greater than the percentage of heterosexual youth who reported having made a suicide attempt" (Seattle Public Schools Teen Health Risk Survey, 1995). Do we really want to promote behavior that may increase the suicide rate of sexual minorities? If Cease Fear thinks that accessibility to guns will not directly relate to an increase in completed suicides by gays, they are dead wrong. There is a clear link between accessibility and suicide completions with guns.
I read that Cease Fear plans to promote their message at the Pride Parade. I plan to be there too, but I will be preaching the truth about guns until I'm blue in the face. I hope others will join me.
SALLY BLOCK
SEATTLE
Majority, repugnant
Am I the only one out there that is tired of reading about the struggles of people that choose to engage in sex acts the majority of us find repugnant? Your definition of "liberation" ("Queer politics," 6/22) will never happen. Homosexuality will never be accepted as normal, never has been, never will be. Many people become physically ill when they see two fat dykes kissing in the park or two hairy men touching each other romantically. You can debate the issue for another four decades but the bottom line is that behavior is offensive to most people. Keep the public displays of affection and your sexual preferences private. Just as it is annoying to hear a heterosexual proclaim himself to be a colon crusader it is annoying to hear a homosexual state the same. If you do your job and pay your bills nobody will really care who you sleep with. It is that simple. Quit worrying about it and get on with your lives.
