might be, or to answer the charge that homosexual propaganda aims "to seduce more of the innocent.
Those questions can wait. What bothers me here is the gratuitous assumption made by Cant, Bergler, even by Dr. Ellis and thousands before them that homosexuals are trying to "hide behind great men.' Mister Cant puts it that homosexuals "claim to be a special breed, the repository of most of the world's artistic talent "He implies that Cory makes this claim. That is simply not true. Nor is it true that that homosexuals generally hold such an opinion, nor that "seductive" homosexual propagandists are trying to deceive the public with such an idea.
Mister Cant announces that Beethoven's unconscious motivation stempsychoanalysts Editha and Richard Sterba indicated that much of Beethovens unconscious motivation stemmed from homosexuality. ONE INSTITUTE, in its fall-semester class on THE HOMOPHILE IN HISTORY (beginning in Los Angeles in September) will sift through the Sterba evidence on Beethoven. Does that mean we are trying to grab up the name of another great man to hide behind? Do homophiles want to hide behind "great men?" Do they perhaps hope to filch a little vicarious glory or simply to excuse their own "nasty habits" by counting many of the great in on the fraternity?
The question poses a fake issue, ALTHOUGH, if homosexuals did feel compelled to hide behind "great men," there would be plenty of room. Strong evidence indicates homosexual leanings in at least three American presidents and five English monarchs most of the Roman Caesars
a fair sprinkling of historical villains, along with the heroes among philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Erasmus, Schaupenhauer, Nietzsche among poets almost every classical Roman or Greek,
plus Shakespeare, Marlowe, Milton, Marvell, Browning, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, Whitman...
Some homosexuals, including a vociferous minority of ONE's readers, are bored with digging in the past. They either prefer to measure their morals and ideals purely by their own social and personal necessities, or they simply recoil from the oftrepeated charge of "hiding behind the great." They consider all problems present problems, and feel no understanding can be had from the
past.
ONE, particularly in its Educational Department, places heavy emphasis on historical study. Many scholars have listed and dissected famed homosexuals. We feel this has great importance, but it is not a matter of hiding behind great names. On the contrary, it might be more apt to claim that social respectability hides behind falsified images of many a great homosexual. Make no mistake about it. Homosexuals are not alone in looking to great men for inspiration and self-understanding. All of society does it, especially all minority groups. Homosexuals are engaged in a "search for heroes" as Cory phrased it. But the same can be said of all other social groupings. Need Americans feel ashamed of admiring Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, etc.? Christians emulate Christ, the prophets and saints. The Negro people in America have taken a giant step in gaining an admirable list of heroes of all sorts.
There may be some individualists so independent as not to require heroic figures. But for most of us we exist in society, and even if we are rebels or independents, we derive much of our inspiration and justification from the historic examples of rebels before us. The child is morally nourished by heroic models, and it is of just this nourishment that society seeks to deprive the homosexual, so
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