Your reporter responded to my post with a line that reads. “Does is raise questions about the author? Yes.”

I do not think the average person would have raised an eyebrow if they knew the email came from a handheld device.

Does it raise a question about the author? You bet it does! I would suggest and encourage you to assign a new person to the story because Mr. Heywood admits he has a bias towards Mr. Volk and his group.

The only way your newspaper will get respect from the average gay person is if there is a non-bias person behind the keyboard.

We have a very important fight ahead of us and that fight is the safety of children. We do not have time to worry a media person who even has the perception of being in back pockets of the people that are being accused of rolling over on the issue.

Your reporter responded to my post with a line that reads. “Does is raise questions about the author? Yes.”

I do not think the average person would have raised an eyebrow if they knew the email came from a handheld device.

Does it raise a question about the author? You bet it does! I would suggest and encourage you to assign a new person to the story because Mr. Heywood admits he has a bias towards Mr. Volk and his group.

The only way your newspaper will get respect from the average gay person is if there is a non-bias person behind the keyboard.

We have a very important fight ahead of us and that fight is the safety of children. We do not have time to worry a media person who even has the perception of being in back pockets of the people that are being accused of rolling over on the issue.

Your reporter responded to my post with a line that reads. “Does is raise questions about the author? Yes.”

I do not think the average person would have raised an eyebrow if they knew the email came from a handheld device.

Does it raise a question about the author? You bet it does! I would suggest and encourage you to assign a new person to the story because Mr. Heywood admits he has a basis towards Mr. Volk and his group.

The only way your newspaper will get respect from the average gay person is if there is a non-bias person behind the keyboard.

We have a very important fight ahead of us and that fight is the safety of children. We do not have time to worry a media person who even has the perception of being in back pockets of the people that are being accused of rolling over on the issue.

Triangle Foundation
Michigan Equality Michelle Brown
Michigan Board of HRC Michelle Brown
LAAHR
ACLU's Jay Kaplan

I am sorry to say the following groups have been forced to fall in lock-step:

Affirmations
AFSC-LGBT project

The God-father of the mafia for the last 10 years has been Triangle. Because of Triangle the young gay men and women do not understand the history, while the older gay men and women have demonized these groups due to fact the only time they want to hear from the masses is in the form of a check.

For those of us in the straight community, it might be helpful if you were able to identify groups/members of the “MI gay mafia” as it is not as obvious to us which organizations/people are on which sides of the anti-bullying legislation issue. Without this information it's also more challenging for editorial staff to ask reporters for more clarity; your focused feedback here would be helpful.

I'm going to ask that you address the content of the feature — the split in the LGBT community over anti-bullying legislation — and refrain from ad hominem attacks, in keeping with this site's comment policy.

“Does is raise questions about the author? Yes.

Is this a bad thing? No. Those same questions were already being asked, and the publication of the email as provided simply presented the source document for readers to decide on their own.”

If grammatical mistakes “raised questions about the author”, we would not have had George W. Bush, a Yale University graduate, as President of the United States.

Sympathetic understanding of concerns is not served by scrupulous proofreading. It is mean-spirited and mocks the pain and despair behind the voice.

Rather than focus on the concerns expressed in the words, you sought to belittle the author by inserting “sic” at egregious points. It's like mocking the Hispanic person who speaks English with an accent, or the person who speaks substandard English, rather than truly listening to their words.

You had an opportunity as a journalist to be an adult, but you chose to be a schoolyard bully, “Nyah, nyah. He can't even speak English.”

If you had wanted the reader “to decide on their own”, you would not have inserted “sic” with such seemingly malicious glee.

Or do you believe that the readers of Michigan Messenger or Between the Lines don't know their 'parse from a hole in the ground'.

Evidently you are a bit mistaken in your understanding of things.
First of all, Michigan Messenger and Between the Lines adhere to an ethical standard about reporting the news.

Secondly, BTL has issued several editorials on the situation including http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?articl… and this one which specifically condemns the alleged gay Mafia. http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?articl….

Thirdly per our code of ethics here at Center for Independent Media (http://newjournalist.org/ethics/) publishing the email Mr. Volk sent out to many people in its format as presented was not only ethical, it was honest. Publishing as it was sent out to many readers the proper context. You will note that I specify in the story the quote comes directly from an email– again an act that was not only ethical but adhering to telling truth. Readers have a right to read in detail what a writer says in an email, how they say it, and they way they say it.

Is it raw? Yes.

Is it inaccurate? No.

Does is raise questions about the author? Yes.

Is this a bad thing? No. Those same questions were already being asked, and the publication of the email as provided simply presented the source document for readers to decide on their own.

And finally, if I were “carrying the water for the MI gay mafia, don't you think publication and focus on this story– how the community is dividing– would in fact being something I would be “silencing” for my mafia friends? You will note, if you bother to do some research, that my reporting on this issue has been honest and direct, including back in 2007 when the bill passed the House. The story that came out of that did not make the MI gay mafia look good either.

But, “MI's gay mafia” has to have all or nothing. Why? Money! The bigger the issue the more money they can request and will receive.

Todd Heywood, the writer of this article is not non-partisan in this debate. He also writes for Pride Source and has daily contacts and personal relationships with the “Mafia” folks. He carries the water for “MI gay mafia:”

Volk had obvious typos in his statement. Rather than Heywood giving him the opportunity to make to corrections, he printed the statement leaving the reader to think Volk is a person that cannot write a proper sentence. That just goes to show the lengths the “MI gay mafia” will go to destroy anyone that gets in their way.

Although something tells me Phil Volk and his group is not going away anytime soon. “MI's gay mafia,” there is a new leader in town that is not going to bow as you enter the room.

Btw: To prove my point about the “mafia” who remembers Affirmations running the Gay Film Festival until Montgomery at Triangle decided Triangle was going to run it and blindsided Affirmations.

Homosexual politics in Michigan is about being the correct color, the hottest body, living in the most exclusive areas, attending the best parties, and having the highest education.

Lesbians have a not so hidden misanthropy that refuses to donate to male concerns or attend fundraisers in male bars.

Gays have a not so hidden misogyny that refuses to acknowledge female concerns.

Brown (Hispanic) homosexuals and Black (African) homosexuals mutually despise each other.

And everybody hates crossdressers, swishers, and dykes.

But the most despised are the homosexual men and women who live in Detroit.

They are the ugly stepchildren who live on the other side of the tracks. Pity and condescension is the best Oakland County homosexuals can offer them.

“Poor child, tsk tsk, not smart enough or rich enough to get out of the ghetto.”