Dear Sirs:

We homosexuals are a minority group with generally a much smaller degree of social visibility than some minorities, such as the Negro. We are in for as enthusiastic a persecution by members of the larger society as is any minority, especially if these people are sexually insecure themselves.

Unlike most minorities, we do not propagate our own kind.. Wherever we do

come from (and I refuse to recognize myself as the product of tragedy), the hard fact is that we do increase and there is no more chance for us to resign from our particular minority than there is for the Negro to change the color of his skin. We are definitely not like the reformed Communist who joins the church and begins writing for national publications. . . .Parenthetically, it would seem obvious that any homosexual who echoes the common prejudices concerning other minorities deserves what he gets in society's treatment of him. We can't will ourselves out of homosexuality by any conscious effort of the mind, nor by trying to be super-conformable to society's demands in other repects.

In view of these considerations, I feel it is in poor taste for any homosexual writer to write of his fellows in a demeaning manner, even by implication, unless it be for some specific literary effect. His own feelings of inadequacy don't need to be exhibited for thd edification of others, especially the general heterosexual population. . . . I say that those who do will never have that essential for every human being, a certain amount of self-pride.

Once I determined to stop apologizing to anyone for being homosexual, even by implication, I found that it was no longer necessary to hurl imprecations at my parents for getting in there and mixing up all those parent-

one

child images. And a bounty was added when I began to learn pride in my group: a satisfaction of identifying with my fellows, a secret comradeship under the stress of peril, the indefinable thing which soldiers miss when they rejoin civilian society. As a member of this group, it was imperative that I learn the basic truth of all minorities, that stereotypes don't fit. . . . Certainly the homosexual stereotype is the most wildly untruthful of all. The only, trouble with stereotypes is that they tell much more about the people who hold them than they do about those whom they concern.

As these truths have been borne in on me, my own hunt for homosexual companionship has become less compulsive and predatory. Instead, I can look for a good, solid and permanent circle of friendship founded on honor, truth and understanding. The high turnover in homosexual comradeships results largely from the search for a strangely distorted goal; by re-appraising the goal one may have a chance. Let's not be too damn apologetic for our homosexuality. For myself, this life has enough to recommend it so that I would not wish to exchange it.

Dear Everyone:

Mr. D.

Los Angeles, Cal.

If Grace Kelly can have a 21 gun salute, Gabrielle Ganelle certainly deserves like honors. Her article on 'testbooks' should be syndicated everywhere! I've read my share of 'scientific works' and what little knowledge I derived from them has been completely over-shadowed by the mass amounts of confusion they dish out. Also, it pains me to remember the many times that my overworked eyeballs were thoroughly singed!

Miss L. Hudson, N. H.