An Open Letter

DO CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES COVER HOMOSEXUALS?

Note to readers of ONE: This letter in behalf of several million American homosexuals subjected to fear, persecution and discrimination, is being addressed to Dr. Robert M. Hutchins, as President of the Fund for the Republic, set up by the Ford Foundation to clarify issues of civil rights, and to Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr, (D) Mo., chairman of the current U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, in the hope that these men or groups might be bold enough to give attention to a subject seldom faced by partisans of civil rights.

Dear Sirs:

The commendable and forthright work of each of you in spotlighting "the erosion of our civil liberties," at a time much threatened by conformity and a distorted concept of national security, leads us to hope you may be willing to turn attention to the wrongs suffered by suffered by a group shunned like lepers by most defenders of liberty and justice.

More maligned in our society than even the Communist, and lacking bold allies or even a developed sense of community with his kind, each homosexual seems to stand alone as an outcast a secret sinner dreading exposure that may come at any time. Those assuming such a minority to be a negligibly small band of willfully perverted criminals can perhaps approve such social ostracism. However, Dr. Kinsey's startling figures have revealed what other investigators had indicated, that this is a most sizeable group, far too large to be repressed without sever consequences to society itself.

As also with persons considered politically unorthodox or subversive, it is impossible to say how many homosexuals there are in the U.S. Basic definitions vary. Under laws of most states, any man committing a homosexual act would be classed homosexual and criminally liable. Kinsey's figures indicate approximately 18,000,000 men (plus smaller numbers of women) who having completed at least one such overt act might be considered homosexual by the courts. About 9,000,000 American men have had considerable homosexual experience over at least a three year period. About 2,000,000 are exclusively homosexual

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