HOMOSEXUALS ARE NOT PEOPLE

Reports from the West Coast tell us that there is now a foundation devoted to research in homosexuality. Two of its stated purposes are to press for social rights for members of this much harried minority and, conversely, to formulate an "ethic" by which homosexuals may live. The first is, of course, extremely heartening but the second sounds less reasonable. The Foundation seems unaware of the possibility that attainment of civil rights for deviates might make the ethic unnecessary if not antagonistic to their integration into society. The idea almost appears to be in agreement with society's conviction that homosexuals are wholly different. It might be an answering of the common accusation, "You're queer," with the weak euphemism, "No, I'm special."

Apparently it is not trite to point out that homosexuals are to be found in all strata of society. Degree of intelligence, race, religion, ability and physical condition appear to have little to do with it. Deviates are found in all vocations from ballet dancers to rugged athletes, from the brawniest laborer to the tenderest invalid, from the subnormal to the genius. He (we will assume the "she") certainly has not monopoly on the arts, nor does refinement of nature indicate his sexual bent. Unfortunately for the "pervertophobe," the homosexual is everywhere.

But this is the same oversimplication that leads alleged heterosexuals into thinking, as those who make our laws do, that a "normal" person would not make a mental or physical sexual gesture toward one of his own gender even once. Society and most homosexuals seem to think that the individual either is or isn't. Actually the highly abstract term "homosexual" can apply to a vast range which runs from the person who merely feels a vague attraction to his own sex without a wish for physical contact to the infrequent person who seeks such contact exclusively.

It is here that the vastly neglected bisexual enters into the picture and, from one point of view, proves to be the keystone of the situation. Research tells us that a large percentage of the population enjoys intercourse with whatever partner circumstance, opportunity and preference provide-regardless of gender. This does not indicate that these persons are bestially indiscriminate taking whatever comes along in a merry promiscuity. The sexual impulse is far from utterly tyrannical as we are taught to believe from earliest childhood. It is only if we believe it is. Conditioned choice rules coital selection almost to the

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