A defense of liberal, straight men

My liberal, straight male friend Jonathan sent me a link to this open letter to all the liberal straight men, from the latest Carnival of Feminists, and asked if I would sign on to a letter like this.
My response? I think statements like this give all feminists a bad name.
The only real complaint I could find within this screed is that there are liberal, straight men who “derail the discussion” of gender by superimposing their personal experience. To which I say, sure, and there are also lesbians and straight women and gay men who do the same thing. I don’t think this implies self-centeredness. How can anyone completely separate from their personal experience while discussing gender issues? And why would we want to? Personal experience is what makes for a meaningful dialogue about how gender is lived on a daily basis. I want to hear what my straight, male friends have to say. And I expect them to listen to me, too.
I don’t see this as a “defense of the male voice” so much as a defense of a wide variety of perspectives on gender. I understand that, as a group within institutions (like, say, the Democratic party), straight men have historically dominated and today continue to marginalize other voices. But I this isn’t what the “open letter” is addressing.
And I do take issue with men who are unwilling to listen to women’s concerns/complaints/anecdotes about the subtle and not-so-subtle ways they experience sexism — and men who write off those complaints because they’ve never personally experienced or witnessed something similar. But in this post, she’s not making that argument. So I digress.
Other than that, I couldn’t really find anything specific to respond to. I honestly think this letter “detracts from the focus of the discussion” about gender by painting all liberal, straight men with such a broad brush.