I don't invent the 'Dear GB' emails!

In a comment to my most recent posting in the 'Dear GB' category, a guy calling himself Stephen suggested earlier today that perhaps I make up the 'Dear GB' emails. I was drafting a response to him when I realised that this is an important question, so I'm going to devote an entire post to answer this.

The answer is NO, I have never made up any of the 'Dear GB' emails. If any of them feel similar it'll be because I sometimes make some changes to improve clarity or English grammar. I also always edit the start to 'Dear GB' because apart from one occasion, people always begin their emails differently (e.g. Hi GB). But I do try and preserve the style of the author where possible.

In terms of the situations, so far I think they've all been pretty distinct. In particular, this recent one seemed very different to me. The next 'Dear GB' though ("Email from a gay guy with relationship issues"), which I'll hopefully get round to later this week, is a very similar situation to another recent 'Dear GB' email. But the one after that will definitely be different because it's from a young woman. As everyone will see when I post the response to that one, I've been in correspondence with another young woman who previously wrote me a 'Dear GB' email, because I felt I needed a woman's view to do a good job.

Regarding the most recent posting which Stephen queried, the guy who sent me the emails has now identified himself as Robert by leaving a comment. I am grateful because I don't like to have my integrity questioned, and I can certainly confirm that Robert was the name on the emails that I received. But he shouldn't have been put in the situation where he felt that he needed to support me. In fact I was having supper with Dragonzlad when Robert's second email arrived. Dragonzlad had just gone to the men's room in between courses, and I checked my emails on my PDA while he was away. On his return I took him into my confidence and showed him the email to get his view on the situation.

Anyway, I don't understand why anyone would think I'd make them up? Does anyone think I don't have enough to blog about?

The 'Dear GB' concept all started when I received a few unsolicited emails asking for advice. Because they were interesting situations, I asked for the author's permission to post their emails and my responses. The people who sent me the emails seemed to like my responses, so underneath my e-mail address in the column on the right here I added a line saying that people can email me for advice. I now seem to be getting more and more such emails, and at one point last week there were four pending 'Dear GB' emails. Perhaps it's getting a bit out of hand because I'm a banker, not a professional counsellor!

'Dear GB' is just me trying to be a good gay guy, providing free advice to anyone who thinks I may be able to help them. In a similar way, in another attempt to be a good gay guy, I got the fee from The Guardian piece that I wrote as 'GB' donated to the Terrace Higgins Trust. Obviously I mustn't divulge any of the names or contact details of the people who've sent me 'Dear GB' emails, but if anyone doubts me on the THT donation and wants to email me, I could tell them who to speak to at the THT to confirm that The Guardian charity donation occurred. (In any case, the online version of The Guardian article also says that the donation occurred).

So when I do a 'Dear GB' posting, please can everyone try and leave comments, because these are real people sending me these emails. I don't claim to be any good at writing the responses, and I certainly don't have any counselling qualifications either, but there's one claim that I will make here. I don't invent these emails for the fun of it, so if nothing else, I do think that I have some integrity!