Sirs:

It is with a deep feeling of regret that I embark on the writing of my first anonymous letter, and a faint feeling of shame. I have been employed in fairly "sensitive" positions, and may be so employed in the future. For this reason, I do not wish to have any traceable link with your publication. A hint of such activity in my FBI records would be sufficient to put me on the outside looking in, because of our supposed proneness to blackmail.

I enclose a small donation to be used for the purpose of keeping the Magazine going. I have already made arrangements with a friend who has less necessity for concealment to forward the copies of the subscription I entered in his name. Ridiculous, isn't it?

I was very well pleased with the first issue, and am looking forward to the others. There was only one suggestion I feel impelled to make. It is in regard to the editorial policy of the Magazine. Your point was of course well taken about the fantastic, near-psychotic actions of various law-enforcement agencies, when they wish to wipe out, destroy, incarcerate, etc. all persons who may practice any form of homosexuality. This works both ways, of course. The magazine aims to create a more friendly and tolerant attitude on the part of the great mass of "normals" toward homosexual individuals and groups. I should think that one of the most telling ways of doing this would be to try to create the impression of great sanity by keeping the tone of the magazine essentially quiet, reasonable, and calm. Part of the popular legend about us is that we are flighty, hysterical, and intensely neurotic. Of course, there are such people in our group, just the same as any other, but I fear that it would do the group a disservice to allow writings of this sort to creep in. I was favorably impressed by the tone of most of the articles, but there were a few which left me with an uncomfortable feeling of tension, due to the unrealistic ends proposed. Specifically, the idea of expecting any great change of attitude on the part of those officers who are charged with the enforcement of the discriminatory laws. Such people must usually be compelled to act as they do from deep subconscious levels; the error lies in expecting them to change, just as they in turn expect us to change. One is as unlikely as the other. The proper method of attack seems to me to be thru legal channels, thus divesting them of the protection of the law in their persecutions. Certainly it is the height of fantasy to expect exhortation to change their attitudes.

-S. A.

"Deep subconscious levels" implies the same insanity of which homosexuals themselves are accused-and that social education would be of no avail. ONE questions this-while thanking the writer for his/her evident interest.

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