Camille Paglia's column is both eloquent and razor sharp, yet I can't help wondering why there are so many victims left bleeding in her wake. With all the external homophobia in our culture, her stab-and-run approach appears to be adding to the body count with internalized homophobia as the bloody dagger.

Matthew Shepard is certainly not the "ideal image of the gay man to be projected to the mass audience," any more than there is an ideal or perfect image of any lesbian or gay man, or heterosexual person for that matter. My sister was one of Ted Bundy's first victims, and while one could argue endlessly about her internal goodness or human frailties, what is inarguable is that she was savagely brutalized and murdered, as was Matthew Shepard. That my mother or Judy Shepard could be "all-forgiving" is a testament to the human spirit and its amazing ability to survive the unimaginable.

To defend rough-trade cruising that results in a heinous murder as free thought, an essential part of gay male sexuality and an inalienable gay right is the equivalent of standing on the San Francisco bathhouse steps at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, demanding that the doors fly open, and supporting a continuing practice of multiple, anonymous partners and unprotected sex. Neither position speaks to accountability, responsibility or the sometimes horrible and unknowing consequences of cause and effect. To offer this as an inherent part of the gay male sexuality is insulting and, in my opinion, perpetuates the myth of homosexual lovemaking as perverse. I would submit that it is this position that is "castrating" -- not the support of hate crimes.

As much as I admire and am moved by the frequent mention of Paglia's partner, Alison, I would hope that someday Paglia could support, rather than attack, the need for all human connection within the gay/lesbian community, between mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers and all their male counterparts. There are enough vicious attacks from the outside, without having more anger and dissent implode the fragile gains from within. Whether it's Judy Shepard, Cher, Betty DeGeneres, or Ellen and Anne, why stab the messenger when the message is so vital?

-- Lacey L. Lewis
Houston

Camille Paglia, in her latest column, lambastes the "academic establishment" for de-emphasizing the acquisition of hard knowledge, and cites an earlier work titled "The Corrupting of the Humanities in the U.S." Can we please stop equating the academic establishment with humanities departments? As someone with two degrees in physics, I can assure Paglia and her readers that parts of academe still respect the acquisition and even the expansion of hard knowledge. Moreover, postmodernism and deconstructionism never come up -- except as the butts of an occasional practical joke.

-- David J. Edmondson
Washington

While I applaud the author's call for the regulated legalization of drugs, I would suggest that her views about employer drug testing need to be revised. Because of the body's metabolism and storage of chemicals (especially in fat), it is quite possible to test positive for drugs, e.g. marijuana, days after use and days after the psychotropic effect has worn off. If employers wish to test for impairment, they should test for impairment with appropriate tests of coordination, cognitive functioning, etc. Impairment comes quite easily from legal medications and medical conditions that drug tests will miss. Drug testing in the workplace is often inappropriate and punitive, and not a means to "protect" the public.

-- Glenn Martin

Does Camille Paglia expect Salon readers to join her in "hailing" Rush Limbaugh's tremendous intellectual influence, or be impressed that she did? For the critical thinker, Limbaugh's only intellectual value is as a running brain-teaser, with listening to him an exercise in identifying the fallacy. Why would Paglia, champion of the humanities, hail the intellectual influence of a man whose poisonous tirades give the indication that he's never read a single book that wasn't published by Regnery Press -- whose idea of great music is the Mannheim Steamroller playing "Deck the Halls"? How can she attack the lockstep mentality of the liberal media but praise the intellectual influence of someone whose admirers call themselves "dittoheads"?

-- Charles Brower

Will someone please tell Camille to put down the damn thesaurus and write in today's English? While I like some of her articles, it pains me to have to keep clicking on the damn dictionary just to understand her! We believe she is smart; she doesn't have to keep trying to convince us.

-- Darrell Hampton

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