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Papi, you sound so sad and my heart breaks. For all the gay people that I love and who love me, I wrote and mailed an angry letter to my parish priest and told him that he will have to answer for the hate that he preaches from the pulpit and I look him square in the eyes every time I accept Holy Communion from him, pretty sure that he knows that I wrote that letter because I signed my full name to it. I call in to so-called "Christian" radio shows who are nothing but false prophets and I tell them that they too will have to answer for the hate that they preach and for being a stumbling block to the children of God whom He made gay, lesbian, trans, bisexual , queer, etc. and who long to approach the throne of grace and receive the embrace of unconditional love that is waiting there for them just the way they are. This love is real and it is the love that all of us are searching for. The religious clergy, pastors, etc. speak through both sides of their mouths while the hateful commit evil against innocent people. This is not doing God's work. The bible says that God is going to tell them, 'Truly, I tell you, I never knew you'. Papi, He knows you and He loves you.

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Your ode to "the gay bar" changed me from a "free viewer" to a "paid subscriber." I've been following you for a year or so, but haven't been able to decide if your raw unmasking is cathartic or ego-centric.

I guess it's a bit of both. Nonetheless, your missives always seem to move me, for better or worse. And that's why I applaud you and want to support your endeavors as a true artist, which you are, even if you can't give yourself a fucking break.

Saludos,

Tom

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I think this sense of “keeping the world outside - even as it laps at the door” is what we have lost with the loss of almost every lesbian bar. And I have prayed that with the fluidity and expansion of identity being embraced by Gen Z, a new or reimagined queer bar will emerge. A place that could be that for a whole mess of queer folx that need it.

When this horribleness happens, I fear that’s part of what we are losing - that hope. Because why would they?

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