But we might miss a few people if we just rely on the internet, so we'll send your letter out to publications that gay and lesbian people read, like the Texas Triangle, the Houston Voice, The Austin Chronicle, The Dallas Voice, Ambush, and whatever else we can track down. We'll also make sure to contact radio stations that gay people listen to, like KGSR and KLBJ and Mix 94.7, and get them to make sure they play your music less during the dayparts in which they have gay and lesbian listeners, thus making it less likely that queers will come to your shows. I'm not sure how effective this will be in keeping all those queer-acting people out of your shows, but I think it should work pretty well, since most of these people, like me, think it is "VERY IMPORTANT ... to NOT be stereotyped, pidgeonholed, or categorized" as someone who should be forced to hide who they are so as not to project "negative" associations on the people they are standing next to at a club. In fact, most of the people who see this will never come to your shows or buy your albums or say anything nice about you to
anyone again once they see the bigoted and insulting e-mail you sent out to your "fans and friends."

And, you're right, it would suck for you to have the success of Melissa Etheridge. What the hell were we thinking?

Another ironic tidbit of information that you might be interested to know is that if you go to Ms. Mayfield's website and view her available CDs, you'll see that she has a live CD on which she covers various artists. Strangely enough, #8 is Melissa Etheridge's "Like The Way I Do." Sounds like an effective strategy to me. Michelle has, um, backtracked a bit with this message on her site:

I want everyone to know and believe that I never meant to hurt, offend, discriminate against, disrespect, or alienate anyone - no matter their sexual preference, race, color, or gender. If I have offended anyone in any way, I am truly sorry and I hope you will accept this apology.

I love you all ~

Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,
Michelle