The following was sent to AARP-The Magazine, with a copy to Letters from CAMP Rehoboth.

I live in Rehoboth Beach, DE and I want to compliment you on your article. But, you left out a very important part of Rehoboth’s draw—the Gay & Lesbian Community.

Being the beach destination for major cities like DC, Baltimore, Philly and even New York, thousands of gay people flock to the beaches every summer. Many of us 55+ have chosen Rehoboth as our retirement home.

We have a thriving community and community center called CAMP Rehoboth. Go to camprehoboth.com for more info. CAMP (which stands for "Create A More Positive") Rehoboth has worked tirelessly to bring the straight and gay communities together so that our town can live up to its name "Room for All."

Natalie Moss
Rehoboth Beach, DE

I have to talk to you about something important. Maybe you know that a bunch of our human associates are getting together to build a No-Kill Animal Shelter in our area.

That’s a great thing, because not every local dog is lucky like us. We have a great home here at Schnauzer Haven, with plenty of love and biscuits.

Actually there’s a little too much love sometimes because our human companions invite a lot of visiting dogs over and if they pee on the rug we get blamed for it.

But there are a lot of homeless animals that need a place to stay until they are adopted.

So I wanted to make sure that your readers know about the Cause4Paws fundraiser, auction and party coming up Saturday July 9, 6-9:30 pm at the Rehoboth Convention Center. There will be lots of that rich and gooey food people like (sorry, no kibble) and drinks, too. Tickets are $25 and you can get them at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center and lots of other places around town.

Our Schnauzer friends Izzy, Cody, Kelly, Ashley, Cassie, Rufus (and his new brother whose name we’ve forgotten) and all the other Rehoboth area Schnauzers really hope you will support the new shelter.

Moxie and Paddy

P.S. The Safe Haven Shelter will be for cats, too. Our people are making us say this.

On a recent evening at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, I attended a world-premiere performance of Terrence McNally’s latest work, Some Men. A series of vignettes portraying gay life in America since the mid-twenties, it contains everything that defines that experience: shame, personal freedom, secrecy, humor, music, promiscuity, commitment, parenting, AIDS, chat rooms, and support groups.

McNally’s earlier works include the books on which the musicals The Full Monty and Ragtime were based, and the plays Master Class and Love! Valour! Compassion! If the audience response to Some Men is a barometer, McNally has given us another hit with a long shelf life.

One aspect of the play has particularly nagged me, and revived an issue I’ve felt uncomfortable with for some time. And that is the use of "queer" in reference to all of us who are not heterosexual. (Must I add "GLBT," a designation which becomes increasingly unwieldy as more variations are added? If we strive to be seen as not so different from heterosexuals, why do we continue dividing ourselves into "inclusive" subgroups, as if we were zoologists?)

When I was a teenager in the fifties, "queer" was the cruel pejorative for a gay man. So if the word has had negative connotations from the outset, how is it ever to overcome those, and only then transform into a positive term for non-heterosexuals? This is asking entirely too much of human nature.

"Queering," "queered," and other variations only make it worse. This baggage becomes a self-defeating liability for a serious movement whose goal is to seek justice and parity, to become accepted by the world as equals in every way, including whom we love. We compromise—even ridicule—ourselves in choosing "queer" to define who we are and what we’re about. If that’s our "brand" (to borrow an advertising analogy), I’m afraid our journey to justice will be a long one indeed.

Mary Harris, Lewes