Those who are unable to find a change in American attitudes should ask themselves whether a psychiatrist could have taken this position twenty or thirty years earlier, and whether he could have defended it at a public gathering without eliciting a single word of disagreement.

Finally, in psychiatric and psychological circles, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, despite the emphasis of these professionals on the disturbances of homosexuals, many of the difficulties can be overcome by a correction of the attitude of society. In his brilliant book, The Folklore of Sex, Dr. Albert Ellis

writes:

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The banning of certain sex outlets e.g., homosexuality which would be, under normal circumstances, merely peculiar and idiosyncratic modes of behavior serves to make the users of these outlets neurotic and to make neurotics use these outlets. In this sense, sex "perversion" does not render society sick, but society makes sick people out of "perverts" and induces individuals to use "perversions" as neurotic symptoms.3

This concept, that the ills of society may be the cause of the difficulties of the homosexual, rather than the effect, was expressed by the eminent physician, Dr. Harry Benjamin, in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, as follows: "If adjustment is necessary, it should be made primarily with regard to the position the homosexual occupies in present day society and society should more often by the patient to be treated than the invert."4

But if society is sick, what is to be done about it? And if the homosexual's disturbance is, at least partially, the result of the hostility of society, how can he be helped?

First, not all homosexuals think that something should be done, although most are somewhat dissatisfied with the current situation. There are some people in the group who, recognizing the status quo as being less hostile, more possible to live with, than one might have expected, fear the consequences of a struggle, and fear public reaction to a fast-moving change. They believe that any effort to broaden the rights of these people would bring forth the wrath of the police and reaction in public attitudes, and they contend that the current situation is as liberal as the present American culture might permit. These same people, therefore, go a step further and justify some of the hostility toward the group, claiming that the homosexuals themselves, because of promiscuity, instability, exhibitionism, violence, and other alleged factors, are unworthy of better treatment and responsible for their own status. That the attitude briefly summarized here has its psychological foundations in the guilt of the individuals, and is a defensive justification of hostility which they require for self-condemnation, are too apparent to require elucidation. Whatever the causes, the inaction of these people,

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