Unfair. But typical.

If you want to make the world a better place, write to the prisoner.

On Saturday, 1 July, around 10 PM, Albuquerque Vice Squad and New Mexico Special Investigations Department jointly shut down Pride Gym, the only gay gymnasium in this town. This comes to me a few days late since news bubbles through the grapevine a little slower for people who aren't currently the doorman at Foxes.

Almost a year ago exactly (15 July MMV) all our bars got hit by the Vice Squad on the same night. I guess the monsoons bring out the homophobic tendencies in the police department. Or maybe they just like to keep us in our places once they know for sure that Pride is over for the year.

Pride Gym was famous for its private Saturday night parties. It's a private gym -- you have to buy a membership or day pass to even get in the door, and the purpose of the day pass is to check the place out before forking over the big bucks you need to be a member. The Albuquerque Tribune story is here, complete with descriptions of nude 70 year-old men in handcuffs. The only gay man they bothered interviewing was a stinking rich out-of-towner. Here is my response to parts of it:

Jim Plagens, deputy director for Special Investigations Division, which enforces alcohol regulations, said agents were targeting the gym because it advertises selling alcohol but does not have a proper license.

Oh really. Well, I read the gay press in this town rather obsessively and never have seen any "advertisement" about Pride Gym selling alcohol. Not once! Perhaps there was a sign in their lobby? I do not know. At any rate, it is a PRIVATE CLUB and memberships are NOT for buying alcohol -- they're for getting in the door to use the equipment and sauna and hot tub and cruise. I for one am offended that yet again it is OUR businesses that get targeted when it comes time to toughen up the Liquor Code.

He also said handcuffing patrons in bar sweeps such as this is routine.

It's NOT routine -- at least not since before Stonewall -- I know, because I've been at bars while they were getting swept. I've *worked* at one *as* it was getting swept! I've NEVER seen a single patron handcuffed in a bar sweep, "routine" or otherwise. HANDCUFFING PATRONS IS NOT ROUTINE. Besides which -- Pride Gym is NOT A BAR.

"If this was an underage club, we would be doing the same thing," Plagens said, citing officer safety from unruly patrons and patron safety from agents on high alert.

So once again the tired old trope gets trotted out that gay men are pædophiles -- but carefully crafted -- "if this was", he says -- like most Tribune readers are gonna read that carefully, especially when alcohol sales at all-ages music venues are a hot-button issue right now. Guilt by association, this. It is enough that he mentions the word "underage" in context of a gay men's institution for the meaning to be absolutely clear.

And how does placing patrons in handcuffs protect them from "agents on high alert"?

As for protecting highly trained officers in flack jackets with sidearms from naked 70 year old men -- what are they, Kung Fu masters?

"Especially with a group where there could be controversy," Plagens said about allegations of inappropriate comments.

ALLEGATIONS? Read it. They're his words. Was he misquoted? Has he retracted them? If not, Jim Plagens is a homophobic bigot.

The Fire Department then came in and shut the place down for Fire Code violations.

Money never changed hands for alcohol at Pride Gym. Never. No more than money changes hands at Foxes for its Sunday chicken dinners 'cause Pride Gym is no more a bar than Foxes is a restaurant. A rough equivalent for Foxes would be the health department raiding Foxes, arresting the bartender on duty, getting the Fire Department to shut the place down for faulty wiring, detaining, handcuffing, and citing patrons for our santizer water having more than 100 parts per million chlorine bleach in the inspector's litmus paper test.

Leo, the 27 year-old manager, is a passing freind of mine and he got carted off to jail. Because he's been in trouble before, he's facing years in jail now on felony charges for an alleged offense that he neither committed nor profited from. His bond is set at an impossible $25,000 -- not that it matters all that much, because a different judge has a hold on him.

Meanwhile Dave Bedford, the owner who profited for years from all those weekly parties gets off with a couple of citations and orders to bring the building up to code. You think he's gonna fight it? I'd love him if he did! But man, from what I've seen, he's likelier to play invisible and do whatever's necessary behind the scenes to get the gym back up and running just as soon as possible and screw the guy in jail now for something that he didn't do, if by not fighting it, he can get back up and running in short order. Prove me wrong. Puhlease.

If you want to write to Leo, I am sure he'd love to hear from anyone who has words of support. I have been where he is now (same exact pod, even) and believe me, even a postcard would have made my day when I was there, and he is STUCK. Here's his address -- if you do write, use this address format exactly:

RONNIE LEON CORDOVA
INMATE #100072889
100 JOHN DANTIS DR SW
ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87151

And please, do be "discrete" -- Bernalillo County's Metropolitan Detention Center ain't exactly the gay-freindliest place on earth. Or heck, just email me, and I will gladly forward anything I get to him.

Oh -- and if you ever for whatever reason need to find an inmate in any jail or prison in this nation of jails and prisons, I can not possibly recommend inmate.com too highly.

In other news someone anonymously left a bag of nonfat dry milk behind my screen door. I assume it was meant for the cats. I mixed some up and put it outside for the ferals since the puddled rainwater out there now is pretty rank.