Dear National Gay News,

There is an article in today's South Florida Sun Sentinel, front page Local section about a rally against Fort Lauderdale Jim Naugle's recent comments that angered the gay community here. In defense of his comments, I remember reading an article in the Sun Sentinel not too long ago about a police operation called Operation Get A Room where our police were patrolling the public restrooms and public parks because of many complaints by families who encountered gay men having sex there. I am amazed at all the anger over Jim Naugles comments where he states actual facts like:

1) Broward leads the nation in AIDS cases and

2) Sex in our Public restrooms is a major problem.

These two facts have been reported on in articles in the Sun Sentinel. If I remember correctly, there is a huge population (800,000?) HIV positive people living in Broward, the article listed how many were homosexual men and it was a majority. I am sure you all will be able to find these articles if you search for them in the Sun Sentinel archives and I hope you do ( or maybe the police dept records). I have two friends who died from AIDS. I think the gay community is in denial of this deadly and very serious problem. It is the duty of public officials to serve the public, no one is serving the public by joining the gay community in its denial. I thank Jim Naugle for being honest about it.

Religious charities have encountered HIV positive people both men and women who need help to stop having sex potentially infecting others yet they are considered the enemy of homosexuals by the homosexual community which feeds this perception. Homosexual people are helped by having access to the truth and information on how to correct a problem, not denial.

Sincerely,
Nancy Heise
Parkland, FL