BOOKS

IS HOMOSEXUALITY

A MENACE?

Dr. (Naturopath) Arthur Guy Mathews Robert McBride, New York, 1957.

Hear me kiddies and let me clue you. . . this Mathews cat has had it I mean nothing but had it! A hyped square . . . a crazy .. a crazy mixed up daddy-o who digs the homophile so bad that he makes like a cracked groove-cake over and over again the weirdest jazz.

"Clobber them" he wails-"stash 'em in the snake pit" he shrills"they don't have to make with the guys" he shrieks-"they should take chicks to their pads" he slobbers. This self-styled head shrinker is from nothing... what I mean, Jack, quick like a bunny he leaps on your shoulder and tells you he's from the southern-most and "whatsamatta you, mon. ain't you with the word?" ... "You got your head shrunk to get offa that jive... then you take a doll (a gal) and it comes on like nothing but pleasure. . . or before you say Zorch I'll play a Tom Tom beat on your blubbering lips." Dig him people? OK, I'll come on with a real live sentence; for 30 years thruout the 48 he makes like a super-snooper sexpert "Homosexuals" he squeaks. "have destroyed humanity with such a wickedness. . . the males are worse than the lesbians. . . they seduce vice-squad officers." Oh yeah? Crazy man! Take him nothing but cool kiddies and put your bread on something groovy instead.

.. a

Frank (once over lightly) Pendola

one

GAY BAR,

Helen P. Branson, Pan-Graphic Press, $3.00.

Mrs. Branson in simple and straightforward style tells the story of the many men, and a few women who have come through the doors of her bar over the years. With warm sympathy and shrewd common-sense she presides over her "boys" like a true matriarch, to make her establishment something of a second home to many of them. The code is strict, rewarding the obedient, but expelling the boisterous, the hustlers and all those she considers undesireable.

The story moves smoothly and swiftly, changing in mood from the hilarious to touching incidents of pathos and maladjustment, but never does the author treat her characters condescendingly or as if they were occupants of some zoo. To her they are all of them interesting, some loveable and worthwhile, others less so. all of them very real people and a very real part of our society.

The author makes a plea for a better understanding on the part of parents. friends and the general public of the so-called Gay man, presenting example after example among her clientele who are useful, productive men, although often laboring under burdens of criticism because of personal orientation or fear lest it become known.

Gay Bar is well worth reading. whether or not one agrees in every respect with Mrs. Branson's views and conclusions. An introduction by Dr. Blanche M. Baker, psychiatrist. gives stimulating, provocative background information about homosexuality in the present and other ages, considerably enhancing the value of the book as documenting some aspects of a numerous sector of the American population.

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