Mr. Roberts.

I read your magazine to find inspiring stories about gay people who have distinguished themselves, people who show the way and embody it. Esera Tuaolo, Chad Allen, many others who do not have box office names, and now Ian Roberts ["Meet Ian Roberts," August 14]. Thank you for such a long and informative piece, especially one that ends with a quote like "Love is perfect.... To care is perfect." We have many heroes, and they recall nothing so perfectly as William James on the saints among us who are, he wrote, "like the shining drops that fly before the breaking wave."

BARRY HEREM Everett, Wash.

Bravo to the marketing department at The Advocate magazine! I must say that the tear-away "Subscribe and Save to The Advocate Magazine" card was ingeniously placed in the middle of the issue on pages 32 and 33, getting in the way of my fully enjoying the hotter-than-hell pose of Sex Issue cover man Ian Roberts. You know the one--that picture of him splayed out on that red couch in the alley? That shot had to be the hottest fully clothed picture of any man I have seen in a long time! Seriously, I couldn't rip out that tear-out card fast enough. And if I didn't already have a two-year subscription locked in, I would have been a fool not to subscribe ASAP!

SEAN STORM Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

I loved your article on Ian Roberts. Fie is a big man, with a big heart. I am 35, married for nine years, divorced, and out to my wife and family. I agree with Ian when he says that his family still loves him but their perception of him has changed. I feel the same way about my family. But he, just as I, must move on with life and do what makes us happy. Though his coming-out was inadvertent, be is still a brave man for having come out in a sport full of homophobic views. Thanks again for the great article.

PAUL LOVE Sanford, N.C.

Intelligent, articulate, sensitive--what a great package. A word to Mr. Roberts: Some people just can't be saved no matter how much you try. Let the guilt go.

R. BOHMAN via the Internet

I've always been a fan of Ian Roberts, ever since I saw him on a Star Wars Web site! When they filmed the movie in Australia [Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones], he was one of the extras in the Outlander Club scene, a bartender named Ganwick Trag. When I saw his hunky picture, I had to find out everything I could about him. His strappy outfit and arms let me know that there were gays in the galaxy far, far away!

SCOTT WADE Tampa, Fla.