The FIFTH Freedom

The delinquent behaviour of certain members of a minority can influence public opinion against the entire group.

When a group acquires an unfavorable name because of some of its members, Society automatically assumes that the entire group is to be feared and ostracised as an unwanted entity, lest the minority. should acquire enough power and influence with which to deteriorate the morals and standards of living or the majority.

Persecution of minority groups evolves from such fears, as is shown in the anti-Negro, Asiatic, and Puerto Ricant movements in the United States. This persecution does not serve to suppress the minority, however, as History has shown us in the persecution of the early Christians by the Romans, but rather contributes to the growth of Fascistic elements within the minority which serve to keep it intact, leading to violent retribution if the group should gain power-as was shown later in the Catholic persecution of Heretics.

In India, Mahatma Ghandi was faced with the problem of gaining the world's respect and sympathy for the Asiatic peoples. He did not begin by accusing the British of intolerance, but rather by telling his own people to gain the world's admiration by a worthy show of conduct and self-improvement. The success of Ghandi's method is a living example of how adult behaviour has gained the respect and attention that is the birthright of every human being.

Ours is a strange minority. We possess neither distinction of color nor bone structure, and a great part of our members are undistinguishable even among ourselves. Nor are our privileges, our limitations of the same as racial or religious groups. We belong to no set political class, creed, or nationality. There is no real tradition we can cling to, no proud history that justifies us. We are

placed out of bounds of religion, of marriage, of very existence. We are considered wayward, immoral, perverted, and unjustified. We cannot, as other minority groups, proudly segregate ourselves in special sections, with our own literature, entertainment, and education -the Negroes have Africa, the Asiatics, Asia, the Jews, Palestine-we have that lost civilization of Ancient Greece-and even to that we can place no proper claim. We are forced to meet in secret, in places labelled "Gay" which pay graft to the local police force. We are forced to love surreptitiously, to mingle with others who, if they learn what we are, have the right to discharge us from our work, our homes, our schools. Most states carry anti-discrimination laws, but there are no provisions in those laws for us. We are forced to undergo the greatest degradation of all-insincerity of speech we are forced to lie about our thoughts!

We might consider ourselves as part of a liberal, modern movement towards the greater personal freedom of mankind -the freedom to love whom we choose, and in what way we choose. This freedom has been carelessly omitted from the Bill of Rights of which America is so proud-nor did President Roosevelt include it among his Four Freedoms-yet it could be called the Fifth Freedomand it should be, for it is the most important of all-not only to us, but to everyone else in this world!

Ours is a dangerous minority. In nu other group are the members so dependent on each other for approval, for we are, basically, constantly trying to impress and gain each other's love. Each one of us, therefore, is a strong influence on the entire group. Most of us are not what we are because we have to be, but because we choose to be rather than conform to a pattern with which we are incompatible. We attract converts from