morally wrong, or objectionable for reasons of conscience, or of religious or cultural tradition; and such actions may be reprobated on these grounds."

Further in the Report the Committee says, "There must remain a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief and crude terms, not the law's business. . . We accordingly recommend that homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence."

By thus so plainly distinguishing between the moral and the criminal aspects of certain types of human behavior this august body has cleared the air considerably. And by further offering the recommendation that homosexuality should no longer be considered a crime (any more than are adultry and fornication) they reflect a position which has often been expressed in the pages of ONE Magazine. We wholeheartedly endorse the Committee's opinion regarding homosexual

offences.

However, we still take exception to their admission concerning the imputation of immorality to homosexual acts, and hope this superstitious notion may go the way of its companion. ONE has always said, as the Wolfenden Committee now agrees, that homosexuality is merely one of the many varieties of sexual expression available and currently practiced, to be judged just as we would all the others.

Practiced at the discretion of the persons who prefer it, and at that of their partners, as the consummation of a personal love between them, the homosexual act, as such, can have neither more nor less value than any other. The very first issue of ONE Magazine (January, 1953) carried these lines:

"That we, too, might be proud and unashamed To bring our love out into the sunshine And proclaim to the world, 'We love! We love!"

Now that we see men beginning to realize that homosexuality must be considered legitimate, even though it may accord only with the preferences of certain individuals, we can wish that these more sensible views may begin to free it from the absurd charges of immorality still levelled against it.

In other cultures homosexuality has fully corresponded to the moral inclinations of the people and was an important institution among some peoples of antiquity at the highest points in their civilizations. Faithful observers of logical principles, the Greeks, the Romans and some Orientals never classed Sodomy or Lesbianism as other than perfectly normal and permissible ways of behaving.

Logic demands that we should adhere to those principles which do not demand any particular form of sexual behavior between two consenting adults and that we do not presume to dictate the gender of the participants. These principles do, however, dictate a set of subjective standards by which persons ought to measure the quality of their attachments; but such principles stem from standards of social conduct quite unrelated to sexual acts as such.

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Don Slater, Managing Editor

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