To the Editor:
You indicated in an e-mail asking me to shorten my letter (which I am doing) and that it might be termed an "attack." Is this an attack because I'm objecting to your inaccurate reporting? I have a degree in journalism from Columbia; I know it when I see it. I've already been very specific in this letter about my objections and your inaccuracies but I'll number them for you if it helps.
1) The headline, "Leading gay rights activist bashes men, praises '60s rock," (Jan. 26) doesn't reflect either my Stonewall lecture or even the article you published. Neither the audience nor someone reading the reporter's many quotes from my talk would conclude that I "bashed" anybody. And I haven't heard those anti-feminist buzz phrases from anyone under 40 years of age since women got the vote. Your inability to tell the difference between a cultural analysis of patriarchy and male-bashing insults me, lesbian feminists and people of color, and reinforces the stereotype that lesbians bash men. My talk wasn't about men at all.
2) You made a big (and unnecessary) deal of Dorothy Allison being white and Southern when she did the Martin Luther King Jr. address; why then was my ethnicity (African American/Native American), which is evident, not mentioned at all? This reinforces the stereotype that only white people are gay.
3) Why does the reporter say that the entire Celebration "largely focused on gay rights," when only two out of over twenty events focused on gayness? Selective reporting of facts, is in effect, lying; and those lies support the oppression of Black people and Queer people. Have more respect for the history of our democracy and for your fellow students.
