society about them, some psychiatrists and sociologists hold this same opinion, without ever having critically examined it.

Yet even if homosexuality were proven abnormal (in any more than a statistical sense neither science nor society is now capable of eradicating it. Homosexuals exist, and are not generally responsible for their condition -and the condition is generally harmless. (Church of England's Moral Welfare Council recognized homosexual acts between mutually consenting adults as less serious than adultery which results in bastardry and divorces.) No unbiased scientific study has even shown homosexuality to be either biologically abnormal or socially harmful. Scientists discover the practice about as widespread among animals as among men, and about as widespread in the great periods of human history as in the worst. In our own society homosexuals have been found among the best and the worst of men. It has always been thus, and perhaps will always be thus, unless psychiatrists find ways to make all men react in identical ways to the same stimuli, thus achieving a truly "normal" society of total conformity if that is desired.

But who would wish to live in such a world? The magnificence of the "American Ideal" lies in the discovery that the world, or any country in it, is large enough for differing peoples with different concepts of right and wrong to live together in tolerant harmony. The nation we most decry is that nation where the dead hand of conformity has done its worst, where all thought and action must fit what is officially acceptible. In our own country there have been shortcomings in our practical application of this ideal... but we always have faith that we can overcome them. The homosexual now feels that it is his turn to receive fairness and tolerance.

We realize, Senator Hennings, and Dr. Hutchins, that the taboos on this subject are great, and not likely to disappear overnight, and that it might well be politically foolhardy for you to tackle such a question. But the evidence does not imply that either of you are timid men.

Most Sincerely,

Peder