YAR

REFORMER'S CHOICE:

Marriage License or Just License

The following paper is, in the opinion of the editorial board, one of the most important which ONE has published. Its implications are staggering. The author (ess?) was little short of staggering, too, in the mild letter which accompanied this historic essay: "I hope the enclosed will not seem an impertinence." But on second thought, Writer Saunders, it is impertinent and exactly the type of impertinence all thinking persons and this magazine vitally need!

There is something terribly wrong in the reasoning behind the organization which calls itself the Mattachine Society. This applies also to the magazine ONE. It is true that in both the reader sees commendable unification, excellent anger and astonishing enthusiasmvet a person comes away from them feeling uneasy. Can it really be as simple as all this? Does the answer lie in merely "all of us getting together"? A person wants to withdraw a bit from all this bouncing energy and mull over what he or she has heard. You review the prospectus of the Society and go through the back issues of the magazine and this uneasiness increases. Then you sit back and try to visualize our society as these well-meaning enthusiasts would have it. And suddenly you realize that their plans are impossible! They have missed one of their most essential points and committed a basic and staggering

error.

It has to do with acceptance. The Society desires to win from society acceptance for the deviate. On the surface, this aim is certainly fine. Yet look at the tremendous change it implies! Nor is this reference to the change in the general prejudice. That 'is simple compared to the huge problem which acceptance for the deviate proposes.

Imagine that the year were 2053 and homosexuality were accepted to the point of being of no importance. Now, is the deviate allowed to continue his pursuit of physical happiness without restraint as he attempts to do today? Or is he, in this Utopia, subject to marriage laws? It is a pertinent question. For why should he be permitted permiscuity when those heterosexuals who people the earth must be married to enjoy sexual intercourse? The answer does not lie in the fact that the deviate cannot reproduce; this is irrelevant to

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