Take the references to bodily fluids in Mr LaBarbara’s (I like his nickname better; his real name is so…well…GAY!) report; are we to believe that heterosexual don’t have bodily fluids? That straight women have minty toothpaste up their asses and pee mineral water?

No, the heterosexual world is just as down and dirty as the homosexual world. Mr LaBarbara should face the fact that what he is fighting is not homosexuality but sexuality in all but it’s least interesting form. He is fighting secrecy, fantasy, fetish, exploration, consent, experimentation and the entire human sexual subconscious.

And he will lose; because people who express will always triumph over those who hide; because lies always wither in the face of the truth and because freedom frees and feeds itself; oppression needs to be on constant wearisome guard.

I will be high-minded and not stoop to making crude jokes…

I will be… oh, screw it…

“He even took pictures that he said he couldn’t post on his web site. I’m not sure why he took those pictures — but hey, different strokes, right?”

Yes, I’m sure there is quite a bit of stroking involved when he looks at those pictures. What else would you do with that amount of porn… er… photographic documentation?

The vendor market is the only part open to the public–and even to enter that, people must show a photo ID, be over 21, sign a statement certifying that they are not offended by sexually explicit materials, and make a $3 donation to the Leather Archives and Museum. This is AFTER they have passed the “Closed to the Public” signs–so no one is going to wander into these rooms accidentally thinking they were going to see Macy’s jewelry collection. Of course this means that Mr. LaBarbera either doesn’t take the signing of sworn statements seriously and thinks that any lie is acceptable in order to smear others, or he, well, is feigning his feelings of being offended. At least the Leather Archives and Museum will benefit from his $3.

I’d be curious how many people call the Hilton chain and the Palmer House at Mr. LaBarbera’s suggestion. Could it really be enough people–people that the Palmer House actually thinks would have stayed there anyway–to compensate for an event that filled every room in the hotel and enough rooms at the Hilton a mile south to merit a hotel-paid shuttlebus between the hotels on a holiday weekend–an event that is often referred to as among the biggest hotel-based conventions in the city.

Guys come literally from around the world (I met men from Germany, the UK, Spain, India and New Zealand this year, as well as a lot of Canadians) in numbers well over 10,000, and they pay high room rates, exhorbitant bar fees ($6 for a domestic beer), and buy enough at the leather market to make it worthwhile for vendors from the UK, Canada (and Australia in previous years) and across the US to drag their inventory to Chicago.

There is camaraderie, celebration, a competition, dances, a lot of display and flirtation–and, yes, sex, but it’s amazing how often I talk to friends after the event who admit that they were so busy meeting friends, flirting and ogling strangers–and shopping–that they never got around to having sex with anyone.

But when I take two steps back, what I see is relentless capitalism. A communist would not be happy here.

Please please please can I do the mean-spirited name-calling?

What actually happens is, they make the work of better people, better equipped and the more insightful, that much harder.
They are anathema to the progress or edification of a process.
When you encounter people like that, they have an indefatiguable ego. There is no amount of brutally frank criticism that will move them. Or move them to move on. They not only don’t know when they are incompetent, they don’t know how badly they are making a mess of things.
Peter LaB is like that. He’s got this fierce need to impress his anti gay supporters, and at the same time, he enters into territory (many times), that turn up nothing new, or important.
The smarter set, you’d think-would get wise to the fact that there ISN’T anything new. There is no criminal activity and he’s not really able to stop the activity he’s chronically fixated on.

We he as tenacious about going undercover among domestic abusers or drug dealers…he’d be doing the public a real service.
But the thing is, that’s work for the courageous and the committed to ending a social horror that has destructive consequences universally.
And Peter LaB, isn’t qualified. He’s too fixated on one thing. He can’t wrap his brain around more than one social context or interconnected social problems.
He keeps going to the SAME events and venues, over and over.
There may be some new faces there…but it makes you wonder if he’s looking for the school teacher or local sheriff to turn up there as a participant. He seems more like a creeping blackmailer than someone out to clean up a dirty business.
I won’t even compare him to Carrie Nation. At least she came into drinking places with an axe and came face to face with her adversaries.
P. LaB, going stealth, hasn’t the balls to challenge anyone stand up.
What a weenie. An amateur and nincompoop.
There are plenty of causes out there to fight. Plenty of depraved human beings out there running loose.
Homosexuals are NOT a problem in comparison.
And I know this in the most profound and irrefutable way.
I know what kinds of lies and distortions are being furthered. And what it does, is create MORE issues for the police to have to deal with. Like bashings, murders and vandalism against gays and lesbians.
All this does is keep people from appreciating that gay people are not the reprobates that LaB wants his readers to think.
And they can’t be relieved of the fear they think they require. I would consider it wonderful news that gay folks aren’t the problem once thought of. That way more important things that harm everyone will be dealt with.
Gay folks are quite a huge compliment to society, rather than a detriment if people like Peter LaB would just get out of the way.

If there weren’t innocents out there paying the price for this man’s obssession, it would be funny.
But dangerous bungling makes the man someone to be challenged, if not stopped.

His real objection [which he probably does not even realize himself] – is men and their sexuality – straight or gay.

Much of the efforts and energy of the relgious right goes into controlling MEN and their sexuality – regardless of orientation.

All men need to rise up against the tyranny of the religious right and their obsession with controlling other people.