tangents

news & views

by dal mcintire

Local pundit Paul Coates said recently in his MIRROR column: "Sometimes it's a good idea to holler. Because if you don't people don't hear. Or at least they don't pay any attention." ONE has been criticized a bit for raising its voice. "For God's sake, don't shout," our more cautious friends say, "someone might hear you." But like the recent hillbilly song, "I'm Little But I'm Loud," ONE is not afraid to be heard. ONE is not ashamed of its position as the most forthright spokesman for homosexuals in America. We realize some prefer to keep the whole matter quiet. They don't want ONE or anyone as their spokesman-'til they get in trouble. Some also resent our reporting both the good and the bad sides of homosexuality. If we write about Byron or Whitman they say we're hiding behind great men. If we report arrests and muggings they say we're showing homosexuals in bad light. "Leave the dirt under the rug," they say. We refuse to keep silent on the good or the bad-the good needs to be known and the bad can't be improved by hushing it up. We note with optimism that it was those nasty English scandals we reported 3 years ago that led to the current Wolfenden proposals to drop the English law penalizing acts between consenting males. If

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the law does change, it won't be the first time unsavory scandals have led to needed reforms. As for ONE and this column, we will go on raising our voices. We want to be heard.

TROUBLE IN TAMPA

January: Gang of 5 teen-agers who "made a business of rolling sex perverts" (met mostly at Knotty Pine Bar, Hillsboro Hotel men's room and in Plant Park) sentenced to varied terms up to 3 years. Asst. Solicitor James Parham noted a "pervert" was killed in robbery last Fall, said these boys, who'd been at business 2-3 years, told cops of several unreported robberies for which victims can't be found. (One victim, who'd been threatened with knife and relieved of $15, was found and charged with crime against nature no wonder "victims' trust cops as little as the robbers.) Defense Atty. for boys pleaded, "Father Flanagan taught us there's no such thing as a bad boy." Judge replied, "He might have taught you that but he hasn't sold me on it. These men they robbed were no good, but that doesn't give them a license to hunt them."

Thru the year, Tampa papers reported frequent vice squad arrests, including a Tampa U. professor, culminating this summer in City

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