Why can't the average "gay" girl or boy sit down and think of what their future will be? Surely we all want to live comfortably! I'd lay odds that if we all did sit down and think, there'd be a great many changes made. We'd see a lot of fly-front pants and boys' shirts in the girls' garbage container and enough makeup and tweezers to stock a department store make up counter in the boys' containers. And we'd see cleaner, nicer bars. quieter beaches, better mannered and much happier people. There'd be a transformation so essential that even the law would sit up and take notice. We'd probably be a lot safer, and no doubt, more respected and accepted. There'd be no more "why do they persecute us so?" For, after all, we're people, citizens of this great beautiful country, we pay our taxes, and when the need comes up are even willing to give our lives for a good cause. We're Men and Women, (male and female), even though we choose a life far divorced from the so-called "normal" people.. Why don't we act the part?

In being a woman, and preferring a member of my own sex, I don't necessarily want to be a man, or wish I was, nor am I interested in women that act or dress like men. I'm attracted to my own sex, that's all. She may be a little stronger mentally or physically than I, or perhaps a little weaker, but she is a woman, and looks and acts like a woman. I can walk down the street with her and can introduce her to my family and business contacts with the assurance of not hurting anyone, nor losing my position.

This goes for the fellows too, so why all the pretense, why not just be ourselves and drop the showmanship? Let's get together, and do away with the need for remarks like "why do they persecute us so?"

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THE LADDER

Monthly magazine of articles, stories, poems, book reviews, quotes, comment and significant opinion on sexual problems facing the Lesbian in society today. Published by The DAUGHTERS OF BILITIS, Inc., non-profit educational, research and social service organization. Subscriptions mailed in sealed plain envelope, $2.50.

DAUGHTERS OF

BILITIS

165 O'Farrell Street, Suite 405 San Francisco 2, Calif. Telephone YUkon 2-9290

THE LADDER

FEBRUARY 1958 50 c

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