LETTERS

TO BE BLACK AND GLBT

Thank you so much for covering the story about Houston Splash ["Splash Bash," by Ann Walton Sieber, May OutSmart]. It's very important that black gay Houstonians of African descent know about this event. It's also important for the larger community to be aware that sometimes we have to affirm ourselves instead of waiting to be validated by those who subtly or blatantly exclude us.

Paul W. Guillory
Houston

Great layout for JUNE! It is always appreciated when words do not fall on deaf ears. A comment was made at the Houston Black Lesbian Gay Transgender Coalition open house by an attendee about the cover. He said, "Wow, a black made the front cover with other black faces in the inside..."

Dionne Redmond
Houston

COMING OUT AFTER 50 YEARS

Thank you for running the nice article about Jane and me being honorary grand marshals ["PFLAG parents progress from shock to pride," by Sarah Richards, June OutSmart]. I used its URL to come out as a parent to my high school classmates‹with this letter posted to our class's listserver:

"Here's something I bet most of our classmates‹each famous in their own way‹can't top. An article in OutSmart magazine has an interesting photo of Jane and me accompanying an article about us being elected Honorary Grand Marshals for Houston's Gay Pride Parade. It even has a slight mention of my high school days. Read it at: www.outsmartmagazine.com/issue/i06-02/pmsmiths.php."

I had been disconnected from my fellow graduates at a high school near Chicago for nearly 50 years, until I serendipitously stumbled across one of them while doing genealogy research on the Internet. We have nearly 100 of them on line‹amazing for a group of people approaching 70 years of age numbering only about 200 at graduation and with quite a few deceased or still lost.

After my posting last week, only one person has responded so far‹saying she has a gay nephew. But I'm curious how many others went to the trouble to go to that hyperlink. Others undoubtedly are gay themselves but none that I know of yet. And everybody surely has a gay nephew or bisexual aunt or lesbian second cousin...

Irv Smith
Houston

KUDOS FROM LHI

Alyssa, on behalf of Lesbian Health Initiative, I want to thank you for the fine article you wrote ["Our Lesbian Bodies, Our Lesbian Selves," by Alyssa Jacqueline Wright, May OutSmart]. You captured the history and the essence of LHI really well. It was a well-written, informative, and entertaining piece.

Lucy Watson
President, LHI Houston, Inc.