Posted on 01/13/2005 9:15:02 AM PST by presidio9
Telluride's Mountain Village will host Gay Ski Week next month, an event that has stirred debate among residents of the posh ski -resort and the funky Victorian town a few miles away.
In a community that prides itself on diversity, a controversy erupted last month when a resident of Mountain Village wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, questioning why the ski village would promote the gay ski event, which takes place Feb. 26 to March 6.
The letter struck a nerve in the community.
"It was definitely vociferous. It's to be expected," said Suzanne Cheavens, editor of the Telluride Daily Planet. "We're a progressive, liberal sort of place."
Many residents, and even former residents, wrote to voice their support for the village's sponsorship of the ski week, which coincides with the Telluride AIDS Benefit.
"This community is so accepting of absolutely anything," said Ron Gilmer, a letter writer and AIDS activist who spoke by phone Wednesday from Telluride, where he has lived for 13 years.
After the flurry of letters was published, a Web site that publishes an online guide to Telluride, posted a warning to alert families considering a ski vacation about the Gay Ski Week event.
"We weren't trying to be judgmental. The issue isn't having a gay ski week," said Al Heirich, a longtime local resident who operates the site. "Anybody has a right to informatively let folks know what's going to be going on in a small town."
Heirich says he posted the alert after visitors to his site had inquired about the controversy they had seen on the local paper's Web site.
Now he's in a dispute with the ski area.
Telluride ski resort has asked the site to remove links to its Web site. Heirich says he has done so.
"It was unauthorized, and we felt he really didn't represent Telluride or the Telluride ski resort," said Maryhelyn Kirwan, ski resort spokeswoman.
Kirwan said the ski resort expects to host a variety of groups throughout the season, including many Christian and religious groups, college groups and youth groups.
Mountain Village spokeswoman Kerri Cardin said the resort's first gay-oriented ski week in 2004 attracted about 250-300 people, although the village was not a sponsor that year.
Aspen is among the ski resorts hosting gay ski weeks. This year's event runs Sunday to Jan. 23.
I think Mineralman was referring to my link to the "Testicle Festival" as "borderline porn" not gay week at Teluride...though there could be an argument made in both instances.
This is all the article is about, not if you like gays, don't like them, but about freedom of speech and choice.
Which releases us from the restraint of not commenting on it even though we missed the point...[heh]
And he's right.
They'd better think hard about not hiding it.
How else would the parents of small children know when to hide their little boys? Perhaps decent people may not want to unwittingly show up for a very expensive and delightful ski vacation - only to be scandalized by the antics of the sodomite "community"?
It is only respectful for Telluride not to conceal from their normal customers this major group of perverts is showing up. They should know what is in store for them and be able to make alternative plans if they wanted.
Unfortunately, Telluride has chosen to hide the facts as if these are "normal" people showing up by the bus loads. it is most likely they will ultimately proceed to scandalize everybody possessing a sense of decency.
It will serve Telluride right if the town goes broke and they get the reputation of being Helluride.
Yeah, but it's low-scoring because of their reluctance to break scrum.
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