Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

Still in clubs?

Is your magazine still carried at clubs in Ft Lauderdale? I haven't been able to get it since April. Where else is it available here? Is it still complimentary anywhere? I really like it and use it. Keep up the great work!

norranfl@hotmail.com

You bet we're still in Fort Lauderdale; magazines arrive towards the end on the month, and usually go quickly. To never miss an issue, subscribe!

Popular in Ghana

Being very interested in finding an African mate, I am curious as to why there are so many personal submissions from Ghana. Is someone on your staff connected there? Did the magazine actively pursue Ghana's men (and a few women, which is a little confusing). I am planning on moving to Capetown next year and wonder why they are not represented. Wish they were.

H

View our poll archive

ot in Pursuit
New Zealand

How The Guide caught on in Ghana is a mystery to us, but the many Ghanaian men (and few women) who advertise seem to get a good response, so our readers must be interested in making West African contacts. We have had personal ads from Capetown, and you might find some at www.guidemag.com/personals.

Learning from leather leaders

After reading your editorial Leather Leaders [September 2004] I just want to say thank you to the leather guys and gals who are sexual explorers on the frontier. I will be watching for guidance. I hope all of us will, especially leaders of the regular/feminist-influenced people of our gay community that with all their best intentions might be leading us on a dangerous that might take us to the ovens again.

from 'Wilddecker'
via the Internet

Web Research for Prisoner Ads

We an find many ads from prisoners in each issue of The Guide. Reading them, it seems that what they say about themselves could be true, so I wrote some of them and received an answer from every one of them. They send pictures, and I did the same, exchanging a few letters. It doesn't take long for them to ask for money (which I never send) to pay for stamps or because they're in prison without being guilty and want a new lawyer (promising they'll visit me once out).

It's easy to find information about prisoners on the web, though. As you can see from the examples enclosed [ad text compared with prison info gleaned from the web], everyone is lying!

D.R.
Toronto, Ontario

Using a search engine like Google (type in "prison information florida" for example), you can find on-line information about many states' prisoners. And, indeed, many prisoners' advertised stats do not match those given by their captors. But then, stats given by many non-prisoners might not stand up to scrutiny, either. We trust readers to realize that sending money to an unknown person (prisoner or not) involves the risk that they may not be who/what they claim to be. Caution is appropriate with any new pen pal you make.

But please consider that there are lots of guys in prison unfairly, and that almost every prisoner is subjected to dehumanizing policies that do not encourage responsible behavior. Many prisoners have been forgotten by family and friends and work as slaves in the prison industry, paid pennies a day. For such guys, a pen pal who stays in touch who sends a few bucks for shaving cream or fresh coffee or a radio can make a huge difference in their lives. Many readers who respond to prisoner ads understand that they may get a bit of a "story" from their incarcerated pals, but they don't care so much because they like the idea of helping someone unfortunate enough to be locked up in the snakepits our country keeps building at record rates.