LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

As part of my work, I deliver trainings that address “homophobia in healthcare”. We live, unfortunately, in a world where homophobia operates on several different levels—individual, cultural, and institutional. Homophobia has a profound affect on LGBT individuals when it comes to access to healthcare, including doctor-patient relationships, health insurance coverage, and options for treatment.

It is through education and advocacy that LGBT people and their allies will move forward in the fight for equality in healthcare, as well as all aspects of our lives.

Terri Clark, MPH

Community health educator

Brooklyn

The Kids Aren’t Alright

March 8, 2005

To the Editor:

My lover and I are both in our very late 50s. We will be celebrating our 37th anniversary this spring. Why is there nothing in your paper for guys like us? We’re part of the gay world too. We’re the survivors. We survived the bad old pre-Stonewall days. We survived through the early years of the AIDS epidemic when our friends were dropping like flies and it seemed like every phone call was more bad news. We’ve also survived years of oppression and intolerance both from within and outside of the movement. We were out with our asses on the line before most of your readers figured out how to suck milk, let alone cock. We’re old, we’re wise and we’ve been there!

All I see when I look in the various gay papers are young guys, all under 30. All the advertisements I see are aimed at that under-30 crowd. What, us oldsters aren’t allowed to go out to a bar occasionally, or a dance club to kick up our aging heels? What the current crop of gay papers seem to be telling us is that after you’ve reached a certain age, you’re suppose to crawl off somewhere and quietly expire or otherwise vanish from the scene to clear the field so you youngsters can have your fun and not be reminded that in just a few short years (if you’re lucky) you’ll be old too.

Just sign me Queeriatric in Queens.

Patrick MacGregor

Bayside, Queens

You Piss Me Off

March 06, 2005

To the Editor:

One thing about your newspaper that pisses me off as a gay man is your need to have pictures of bigots on your pages. I have no interest in seeing the faces of homophobes in a gay paper. It makes me wonder if you are really on our side or just using us. You cover far too much bad news but need to give more room to the people in the community working to make life better for LGBT people. We need hope in a very dark world.

Christopher J. Noyes

Broooklyn

Her Majesty’s a Pretty Nice Girl

March 7, 2005

To the Editor

Greetings from the cold Northeast of England.

I would just like to say how much I enjoy reading your publication. Keep up the good work.

It fills me with dismay to read about the intolerance and discrimination directed towards LGBT people in the U.S. from evangelical Christians and right-wing politicians. It seems that our compatriots in the U.S. take one step forward, then two steps back. In the U.K., which not so long ago, under a right-wing government we suffered similar intolerance, but after eight years of a centre-left government, we now enjoy some state protection. For example, we cannot be fired from our job just because of our sexuality and if we are, we can take the employer to court. By the end of this year we will be able to register our partnerships and enjoy “some”of the rights and responsibilities of heterosexual marriage.

The U.S. LGBT movement has been an inspiration to me—the not giving in to bigots of whatever persuasion and standing up for what you believe in despite what may happen to you. In my work with a local LGBT center, I am now able to put that in to action.

Cheers.

Alan Burnside

Durham, England

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