a frank look at the Mattachine

Can Homosexuals Organize?

ONE, in exploring this question, has invited several writers to express themselves on the subject. Of the three leaders of the present Mattachine so invited, one has replied during the past three months. His letter is reprinted at the conclusion of this article. In an effort to publish the Mattachine view in spite of its silence, an excerpt from its official newspaper is also printed in this issue. In early issues we will print the testimony of a man silenced at the last convention for having an opinion, the banquet speech which outraged the entire Society and an anonymous report from a high Mattachine official who writes an inside story on how the Society functions. ONE invites opinion on this subject.

What is the Mattachine?

It is revealing that no member of the Mattachine Society can answer this question to the satisfaction of most of the other members. At the third annual convention last November, the loudest and longest debates were on this very question. And in asking themselves Why have we banded together? members came up with answers so contradictory that the founders rolled over in their premature graves. No one seems to know.

The original intention of the Mattachine was three-fold: its originators intended that it should be an organized means of bringing about specific changes in laws effecting homosexuals, of informing the public about homosexuality and of developing a cultural pattern for the homosexual. The founders themselves did not agree on this last idea that homosexuals have a special cultural heritage but they were unanimous in their other aims of fighting cases, speaking out against unfair laws, illegal police practices and prejudice, and in educating both the public and the homosxual on the subject of sexual deviation. These original purposes were gathered together under the name, Mattachine Foundation, which derives from a traditional word for the Fool and Jester who spoke out the truth in the face of brutal authority no matter what the consequences.

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Fairies for Freedom!

The Foundation grew with staggering speed. Before the founders realized it, the Mattachine was internationally known. Its leaflets circled the globe and were printed in many languages. Thousands of letters rolled in. Then came the now legendary case which the Foundation fought, financed and won. The defendant said in court, "I am homosexual but I am not guilty of the charges." A unique plea and it opened a unique trial. When the jury was nearing acquittal, the city moved to dismiss and it was granted. The Foundation had won an historic victory.

The Foundation made mistakes, too. When its officers paid an attorney to file incorporation papers, they considered the job done and thought no more about it for a whole year. This ignorance proved their undoing. A local columnist "exposed" the Mattachine as unlisted among California corporations. He further revealed the attorney as one of those deplorable traitors who availed himself of the Fifth Amendment when a touring committee invited him to publicly hang himself. This could only mean that the Mattachine was the hub of an atomstealing ring financed by the Soviet. This columnist, upholding the American tradition of freedom of the press, refused to print an answer to his accusations nor

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