Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

Camping Safe

We really enjoy your travel magazine. We own a gay campground in western New York State and would like to make The Guide's safer-sex promo "We Want Sex & Drugs, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow" into a poster to promote safe sex at the campground. Is it possible to get the artwork?

Doug & Steve
Jones Pond Campground
Angelica, New York
Jonespond.com

Thanks, happy to send along the requested artwork; best wishes for a great, and safe, '07 camping season!

View our poll archive

'The Finest!'

I want to congratulate Frank Laterreur for writing the finest article I have ever read in The Guide, "Baltimore Revisited: You Can't Go Home Again" (January 2007, available at Guidemag.com). In fact it is superior to most I have read anywhere!

Having lived and worked in Baltimore from 1954 to 1986, I fondly remember the city just as you have written. In my experience, the men on Eastern Avenue used no drugs, did not drink to excess, were honest and not greedy, and for some clothes or food for the family, you had companionship equal to none. A set of weights or bicycle got you a year of the best company anybody could wish for.

It is sad to know that this scene has gone forever, and I certainly would not want to live in Baltimore as it is today. I live four miles from Palm Springs (also featured in the January issue), and while everybody is uninhibited and free as a bird to do as he likes, it can in no way compare to Baltimore in the 60s and 70s.

Thanks for bringing tears to my eyes as I fondly recall the halcyon days of Baltimore when it was the best! Please write more!

D. W.
Cathedral City, California

Great Article, Hon

Your January, 2007 article "Baltimore Revisited: You Can't Go Home Again" (available at Guidemag.com) is great! And so true!

I am an original Fells-Pointer (smell the bricks?), and I ran around Broadway, Eastern Avenue, Patterson Park. Hot sexy huge cocks were everywhere! They still are, but as Frank Laterreur states, they are all on crack or addicted to heroin. Thus, a hard cock is hard to find! For a quick pickup, The Quest is the place to go, with a so-called straight bar upstairs! There are some cuties up there, and they too can be had!

All-in-all, Baltimore has and is changing, mostly for the better, but, unfortunately, the yuppies and guppies have sabotaged the cost of living. See you in Balto?

from Baltoass
via e-mail

Treatment = Prevention

The mainstream media recently has been full of stories reporting that circumcision, in and of itself, is one of the most effective means of preventing HIV transmission-- less relevant here, but more relevant in other parts of the world. However, what such stories do not say, and something that I think it is important for more of us to know, is that when examining transmission between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected heterosexual partners in Africa, by far the most important factor was the viral load measured in the blood of the infected partner at the time the transmission occurred.

What this means for those of us living with HIV and who are sexually active is that in addition to safer sex, the most important thing we can do to protect our brothers and sisters (our partners... and their partners... and so on... and so on...) is to reduce our blood HIV viral load to undetectable levels. Several new drugs have been approved in the last two years-- two in just this last year-- that are easier and have fewer side effects than earlier drugs. A new integrase inhibitor has shown amazingly good results, even in people who have failed other drugs, and is becoming available in expanded access and should be approved in 2007.

What this also means for those of us who are HIV-negative is to remember that at this time, the riskiest sexual partner is someone who you guess, believe, or think-- but don't really know-- is HIV-negative. People are often most infectious when they are newly infected and/or when they are not receiving good drug control of their HIV. We all have friends who have gotten infected in their 30s, 40s, or 50s-- even recently. The guy who tells you he is negative might be lying, might be mistaken, or might be someone who has never been tested. I've known transmissions happening in all three cases.

S. L.
San Francisco, California

Want Married Models

My partner and I are regular readers of The Guide, and we enjoy reading and learning about travel opportunities for gay and lesbians. Thank you for your good work in editing and producing this magazine.

We have one suggestion. The cover of The Guide tends to feature single gay men, and we feel that it would be more reflective of your readership if you occasionally featured covers with committed or married gay couples. We also patronize your advertisers, travel, and purchase the services that the magazine promotes.

My partner and I were married this past June in Boston, and we had over 180 of our close friends and relatives join us for this amazing moment in our lives.

Again, I hope that The Guide will consider featuring gay couples occasionally on your cover to represent the diversity of your readership.

Allen Ward
Joe Poletto
Boston, Massachusetts