Something Published In The Gazette, October 1990

Relations,

This is something I wrote to the staff and contributors of The Gazette, back in October of 1990, The Suncoast Monthly Gay and Lesbian News Magazine. The paper has worn and gone an odd shade of yellow, the pages feel crinkly but are not yet that far along. It smells like an old comic book...

...I saved two copies of this edition because my letter was published. I share it with all of you now.

The Claudia Brenner Story

I really don't expect this letter will be printed and I suppose that this is not the reason I write this letter to you today. Just writing these words provides me with an avenue to communicate and share with you some memories, my thoughts and my thanks and true admiration for the extremely sad and powerful story written by Claudia Brenner that you folks printed in the October issue of The Gazette.

While reading her story the flashbacks were hard to fight off. For you see, I remember that day back in May of 1988 when Rebecca was murdered. I remember the pain and anger - and feel that pain and anger today as I did then. It also stirred memories I have of a dear friend who was murdered in Miami just a year or so before Rebecca was killed. Bringing back the ill feeling in my stomach I felt when Carl's Mom found her only son in his apartment, stabbed more that 60 times. Remembering how beautiful a person Carl was and will always be in my heart...remembering that his death was not then titled a "Hate Crime"...even though I knew then that it was.

Perhaps, Claudia's story was written to stir up something in our Gay community here in Tampa, or for that matter, the world. Perhaps her words were also meant to bring forth a message. I, for one, experienced a whirl-wind of "perhaps" and can only come to one conclusion...Claudia has brought this letter to us to share...and perhaps most importantly to motivate. It's quite clear that if we don't help each other fight the epidemic of hate violence/crimes, no one else will! Silence kills.

I have been the victim of hate crimes. I've been robbed, beaten and publicly humiliated by ignorant people of different races and back grounds - never once acknowledging them as "hate crimes of violence" to the authorities. Should it ever happen again - and I pray that it does not - it will be reported as such.

I thank you at The Gazette for providing the space for Claudia's story. I thank you for the support you offer wholeheartedly here in Tampa. I thank Claudia for her letter and her heart - and I thank Carl for his memory.

Mario Sierra III, Tampa, Florida

p.s. Yes, to this very day, I feel the same. I shittin' have same talk. I like that - it sounds and reads like me.  And yes, I still remember. And know and believe that Silence, Still = Death!