(its strength, that is), together with some indication of its future.

I hope you have studied carefully the history of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's Jahrbuch fur sexuelle Zwischenstufen, and of his Wissenschaftlich-humanitare Komitee which was concerned, according to Havelock Ellis, with the defense of the interests of the homosexual in Germany. We have much to learn from his experience.

Readers may, and probably will object to any tendency on your part to become truly serious magazine. For the sake of keeping yourselves going, I think you must disregard this kind of criticism. It is a vitally serious subject, as we all know-and we do not need to be amused so much as informed. One needs more weight-it must have contributions by scientists of a stature similar to Hirschfeld's in our day to command respect. Have you approached for contributions such writers as Dr. Kinsey, Dr. Albert Ellis (who wrote The Folkore of Sex), and others of equal background?

I dislike the references in letters and articles to effeminate homosexuals as if they were somehow inferior to the rest of us. The origin of the attitude of superiority to this type of human being is, of course, the myth about male superiority. Anything "unmanly" is considered, according to that myth, as inferior to "manliness." We are raised in the tradition that manliness is good, unmanliness bad. Of course, scientifically speaking, this is rot, and it seems to me it is one of the biggest problems we have to overcome. It has been established, has it not, that physically and emotionally we are each of us somewhere between the extremes of maleness and femaleness. Wo-

manliness is just as good as manliness. whether or not it occurs, as it does in varying degrees, in a human being who is more manly physically than he is womanly. If any of you have the delicacy, sweetness, and gracefulness of movement which indicate that you are womanly by nature if not physically, be proud rather than ashamed of it. You must respect yourselves, although in our society it is extremely difficult, since for as long as you can remember you have been taught to hate the sissy and sissiness in yourselves.

But in order to make headway against the ignorance of human nature which is at the bottom of all our trouble, we must overcome much of our early training. Yet, in doing so, the good must be saved if we are going to be worth much, and that is going to require a constant guard against rationalizing and self-pity. We must continue to believe in honor and honesty, in kindness to others and to ourselves, but we have to unlearn most of what has been taught us about our sexual behavior and learn as much as we can of what has been thought by the greatest thinkers on the subject and scientifically verified.

We must, I repeat, keep our self-respect. Without it we not only will cease growing as human beings (growing, that is, in our value to the community and in our capacity for enjoying our lives in the deepest sense), but we will become narrow and embittered. This most necessary self-respect is not felt, however, without respect for others. When we are led by our life-long fear of being considered a sissy into contempt for effeminate homosexuals, we cease being able to respect ourselves because at heart we know

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