May 18, 2007   | COMMENTS     

Re: “Bars feeling impact of D.C. smoking ban” (news, May 11)

I always found it odd that a gay bar, which allows smoking, would pass around the hat (or have a fundraiser) to collect money for people with HIV, especially since smoking kills more Americans per year than AIDS. Don’t bar owners/managers want to do something for the gay community?

Have you considered that the higher-than-normal freezing/cold temperatures and crazy weather fluctuations may have played a role in keeping patrons away from the gay bars this winter (as recently as April)? The parking situation has also grown worse at the Green Lantern, the Eagle and the P Street bars like Apex, Omega and Fireplace. I wouldn’t be surprised if the books show a downward trend in revenues at most of D.C.’s gay bars over the last several years.

Note to smokers: Please don’t exhale your smoke in our faces as we enter or walk by the bars or dine outdoors (like the woman shown in the photo at Jack’s). Please blow your smoke up, up and away!

Thank you for the striking cover photo of Renee Peres, who would clearly be a beautiful woman if she weren’t holding a disgusting cancer stick and blowing poisonous smoke in people’s faces in public.

Separate but equal
matchmaking?

Re: “Gay ‘Chemistry’ lesson” (Action Alert, May 11)

Why does match.com need chemistry.com as a “branch”? Is that a way to keep “undesirables” like us off the main site? I’m just asking.

So why should anyone care that eHarmony’s services are only for heterosexuals? After reading this column, would I trust breeders’ judgments about gays and lesbians?

‘Ill’ gays shouldn’t give
money to Scientology

Re: “Boycott new Hairspray film” (blog post by Kevin Naff, May 4)

The Scientologist who responded to the appeal to boycott the new John Travolta film lies. Or after nine years in Scientology, he’s ignorant. It’s almost impossible to believe that he has not yet read the description of humanity by L. Ron Hubbard in “Science of Survival” (1951), where Hubbard recommends no less than getting rid of everyone who is not responding positively to Scientology, particularly the so-called “ill” people who are homosexuals.

Just because someone does not believe in gays doesn’t mean that you have to dislike them — that is their religion and you do not judge people by religion. Do not boycott this movie because that is wrong! I am John Travolta’s No. 1 fan!

Rural gays have to be
extra careful at work

Re: “Your boss is watching” (The Point, May 11)

The tips about not using work facilities or equipment or posting photos of yourself in your work uniform for personal ads is smart advice. The story of the public school bus driver in Georgia being fired for private legal activities in posting a gay personal ad is sad, but does not surprise me. Georgia is one screwed-up state. I know because I am a native gay Georgian who left more than 20 years ago. I kept quiet, ignored the Christians and other bigots, survived the public schools and finally learned in college and graduate school that there is rational life outside the Bible Belt. My advice: move out as quickly as you can pack your suitcase. Like the intellectuals fleeing war-torn Iraq, move out of Georgia and the Bible Belt now. The biggest mistake of the last 150 years was Lincoln’s success at preserving the union. He should have let the South go and now the North would today have a cheap source of illegal immigrant labor that speaks English.