Philadelphia Daily News
ATTN: Gregory J. Osberg
CEO, Philadelphia Media Network Inc.
400 N. Broad St
Philadelphia PA 19130
Dear Mr. Osberg:
I have been a subscriber to the Philadelphia Daily News for a few years now, after buying the paper every day on the newsstand since the Bulletin ceased publication in 1982. I have been a loyal customer and still believe in the importance of newspapers in our society. I realize that you are just now taking charge of the Daily News and Inquirer; this requires attention nonetheless.
On Saturday, October 2, 2010 your paper ran, on a page devoted to “Faith,” an article by John Freeman, President of Harvest USA. Harvest USA is an organization that seeks, under the pretense of “ministering,” to convert gay people to heterosexuality. They consider homosexuality to be a sin, something they can “cure.” They do not believe that some people are born gay, as has become clearly obvious by now to most people based on anecdotal as well as scientific evidence.
People who have struggled with their sexuality and the reactions of their families and friends, especially those with religious backgrounds, have fallen sway to the arguments of “ex-gay” ministries such as Harvest USA, only to find themselves tormented even more deeply when they eventually learn, after much time and money spent, that they can NOT change who they are.
You've run occasional articles from this group in the past, and although I've always been offended by their presence I've never felt the need to respond. “It's the Saturday paper, it's like 12 pages, nobody buys it on Saturdays,” I've told myself. But in the light of the many suicides of young gay people recently, kids who have been bullied, who have been told by the “believers” that they are sinners and immoral and will go to hell if they don't change, I can no longer sit idly by and ignore this. For all intents and purposes, Harvest USA is a hate group and they must not receive support, even indirectly, from your newspaper.
Over the years your paper has had a strong track record in speaking out in favor of same-sex equality under the law and against anti-gay violence, as well as against the continuing efforts by the Religious Right to pass various laws that would essentially do away with the separation of church and state and force their beliefs upon everyone else.
It is for that reason that I am not immediately canceling my subscription to the paper. However, consider this a sacred promise: if one more article from Harvest USA runs in your paper, unless an article with an opposing viewpoint runs directly alongside it, I will cancel my subscription and never again purchase your newspaper.
Sincerely yours,
Joseph Guckin
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