man are not goods ready made by society but are carved out in spite of them?

At the moment, to oppose the drift is to invite loneliness. I think the main cause of the inveterate pub-crawler is the loneliness we feel as cast-outs. Admittedly that is very hard for us, the most difficult thing we face. Our dilemma is, as I think many will agree, that we cannot gain the respect and recognition we seek without turning our backs on our institutionalized "gay" life.

'I admired a passage in Arthur Koestler's recent book, ARROW IN THE BLUE, in which he comments on the characteristic of the lonely and persecuted to form ghettos, and with them, a ghetto-like ingrown mentality. I believe there are many of us who reject on any terms the cloying security of our own "gay" ghetto, preferring to face homosexuality alone, but this is almost as frustrating as it is commendable, I repeat.

Let me clear up a point here. I began this argument by taking the viewpoint of society looking at homosexuality as a group, and I hope it is clear that in my mind we must reform the so-called "gay" life in order to earn respect for ourselves as homosexuals. As worthwhile a goal as this is, however, what is even more important is to realize that "gay" life is destructive to us as individuals far more than as a group ... thus the point just made about the ghetto. For the ghetto mentality does not in any appreciable way hurt or-

one

ganized society. It does hurt us as individuals, for "gay" life is the vice of homosexuality, and it destroys the moral and spiritual dimensions of a human being just as much and in the same way as does any other vice. If ONE wishes to spearhead a crusade, let it be in the direction of raising the tone of our lives and improving the possibilities of our destinies. Let it be the aim of ONE to relieve the loneliness we feel by bringing together a community of men and women who seek balanced, healthy lives, and to that end, let it be the task of ONE to instruct, to criticize, to encourage, above all, to be a medium of hope that our lives can be meaningful. I can offer at least one concrete suggestion in this letter. It is scarcely a secret that there are homosexuals eminent in almost every field in America today: writers, actors, musicians, doctors, jurists, teachers, even statesmen. I'm sure any reader can rattle off half a dozen with no difficulty. I propose that ONE interview these people to get their perspectives on homosexuality... how it has affected their lives, how they have adjusted to it, how homosexuality could usefully fit in the scheme of our society, how the homosexual can achieve balance and happiness in his own life. These are surely the questions we have when we read ONE, and I think with adequate safeguards as to anonymity, the really "big" people of our times will be willing to offer their opinions.

R. L. M. Chicago

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