yourselves apart-just like society does-and all this time I've been trying to show my prejudiced hetero friends how similar you are to us. I keep saying, "If the only way you can tell one is by peeking through a key-hole, then what's so important about it socially? Swishes are the exceptions, not the rule." Then you come along with this we're-basically-different stuff and everything I ever believed true about you is knocked in the head. You say you're a special minority. Well, I know a hell of a lot of guys you'd never guess were gay and they're not having any of this minority stuff. They're not hot to stand up and be counted. They just want the counting stopped. I know someone's got to speak up but must they act up, too? You've got a perfectly good fight on just civil rights alone; there's no need to haul in the biology; it's beside the point whether you're born or made gay. Show heteros that your denial of rights is their loss, too, and you'll begin to win acceptance as both sides fight side-by-side. Otherwise, if you keep hitting the sex aspect and bilological "difference," you'll scare all the uninformed "normals" off.

You see, I thought you wanted to be just accepted-not honored. Anyway, what's so special about being gay except a lot of heartaches and headaches? Heteros don't brag about the novels and paintings they've produced because they go to bed with the opposite sex. They have inspiring love-affairs but they're inspired by the person, not the wonder of what sex they are. As for your contribution to history, for every homo genius down through the ages, there've been ten that weren't, just because that's about the natural ratio. Anyway, Carlyle wasn't talking about sex when he mentioned the bond between men and women. The way you use it, there's a definite implication that everybody's got a touch of the homo somewhere inside and that this makes a very special, "mystic" tie between them. Well, I'll admit all people are one but it isn't homosexuality that makes them one by a long shot. Or maybe you're saying just gay people have this special bond everyone else is out in the cold. Heteros who share homes, families and a thousand other things that you can't, have nothing in common? But even if you mean all people have a bond just because they're people, the masthead of a magazine on deviation isn't the place for it; that idea is so obviously true a reader can't take it for its face value; he looks for more meaning behind such a commonplace thought-especially in this magazine with this almost mysterious name.

Anyway you look at it, there seems to be a certain amount of confused thinking in the magazine. I strongly suggest you decide soon whether you want civil rights or a legal cult. When you realize that all your arguments should be aimed at whole society instead of just at yourselves, you'll make real progress. I hope you do.

Donald Ferrar

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