Editor,
On Tuesday, we were shocked as we listened to fellow students on the UNM South Lot shuttle express their disgust with an article in the Daily Lobo titled "Web site users look for gay sex at UNM." Consequentially, we felt ashamed and embarrassed as we made our way through campus. We read and analyzed the article and found it to be distasteful as well as lacking credibility. It seems that all the evidence mentioned by the author is hearsay and biased, as we will now explain.
The article claims that gay men are logging onto CraigsList.com to seek out sexual encounters. Though this is true, it fails to mention that there are also heterosexual men and women looking for sexual gratification on CraigsList.com. It seems that these casual encounters are not taboo unless a gay tag follows. We have come across many advertisements in which heterosexual men and women come to a consensus on public sexual encounters at UNM. However, to this date, this has not made front-
page news.
Let us clarify: We are not angry at the article for tapping into this Internet culture, but that the article has chosen to target the gay community. Continuing on, there is a section in which a UNM janitor was interviewed for the sole purpose to obtain what may seem to the reader as evidence, but is in fact hearsay. He states that because he has found lubricant and a gay magazine, the majority of the encounters must be gay. Though he has yet to catch anyone in the act, Ben Lamon has reached a very serious and incriminating conclusion that it must be gay sex. If the evidence of condom and lube equates gay sex in a public setting, is this to assume that heterosexuals do not use condoms or lube? Now to the real question: Why does reporter Jeremy Hunt hold Lamon's statements to be more credible than that of the UNM Police Spokesman Lt. Pat Davis? Could it be that the Davis's comment, "This has never been an issue at UNM," be an end to his article?
We appreciate all aspects of journalism. However, we feel that this article in particular has perpetuated a negative stereotype and has allowed for prejudice.
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Homosexuals are not filthy, sex-driven predators whose sole objective is to cruise public areas for sex. We demand a retraction of the article and an apology to the gay community.
Sergio L. Romero
Deyber Menchaca
Miguel Silva
Daniel C. Dickson
UNM students
