_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...
	Salon experienced e-mail problems for most of the week, so we didn't receive many of the letters sent our way. We apologize for the inconvenience. Those whose letters did get through wrote in to protest, yet again, Salon columnist David Horowitz's defense of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Alan Wolfe's "One big happy family," about the failure of the Christian right to sway U.S. voters, sparked discussion on the meaning of Christianity and the nature of God. Readers also took sides in the debate between Peter Kurth and Andrew Sullivan. Kurth blasts Sullivan for trying to lead American gay culture down a conservative path. Fans of Matt Drudge have also written in response to his report that Salon contributor Murray Waas is sitting on leaked documents that could incriminate President Clinton. Salon has no knowledge of any such documents, but we remind readers of Drudge's line that his kind of "news" is "too fresh to have to be true."
_______________UNCLE ANDREW'S CABIN BY PETER KURTH (11/30/98)
	I am surprised and deeply disappointed that Salon Magazine chose to publish a patently dishonest statement about me in Peter Kurth's diatribe "Uncle Andrew's Cabin." Kurth states that in my book "Sexual Ecology" I call for a "'new taboo' on anal sex" among gay men, and he places the phrase "new taboo" in quotes, thereby making it appear that it was a phrase I use in the book. In fact, in "Sexual Ecology" I discuss efforts by AIDS prevention workers in Holland and elsewhere to advise gay men to forgo anal sex (though never by taboo), and reject that idea. My conclusion instead is that if gay men wish to bring AIDS transmission rates below epidemic threshold, we need to continue doing what we are doing -- practice safer sex, use condoms, etc. -- and also do something that we are rarely advised to do: reduce our overall number of sexual partners. This is certainly a controversial conclusion and has generated considerable debate in some gay circles -- though rarely among epidemiologists. But nowhere in that debate has it ever been alleged that I call for a taboo on anal sex, since I never have. It is one thing for Mr. Kurth to invent quotes to score a cheap point. It is another for a magazine to print them. Having been a magazine editor myself, I understand that when quotes are used in a way that makes them appear to be attributions, they must be accurate. Salon's decision to print that quote, without requesting verification from Mr. Kurth, shows a troubling lack of editorial integrity and oversight, which in this case is deeply hurtful to me. I have little doubt that now that this supposed quote has appeared, it will be repeated ad nauseam, and I will frequently encounter the charge that I call for a "taboo" on anal sex among gay men. After all, it was in Salon. In quotes. Given the level of hysteria that already surrounds this issue -- amply illustrated by Mr. Kurth's carpet-chewing diatribe -- all I can say is, Thanks a lot. If you were a real magazine (and didn't have the divine Miss Paglia) I'd cancel my subscription. -- Gabriel Rotello Los Angeles Please give Peter Kurth a great big kiss from me. I was starting to think I was queer because I don't want to be a pseudo-heterosexual! -- David Stevens Thanks for your piece by Peter Kurth about Andrew Sullivan. I have always been perplexed by him. It never made sense to me that a gay man could come out of the closet and within a few years become so prominent. He simply hasn't earned his stripes, as far as I can tell. He is still an amateur at being gay. Further, he is British, which means he was not brought up in an open society. His comments can never be more than clever since his boyhood was not formed by "Give me liberty or give me death." -- Jack Garman Santa Cruz, Calif. N E X T+P A G E+| More criticism of David Horowitz