INTERNATIONAL

News from other countries; translations and

selections from homophile magazines abroad.

BUT NOT ALONE

by Harry Otis

Were nature to fashion a patchwork quilt from her vast collection of homophile groups she would assemble them from every section of the globe. A colorful assortment it would be, yet an offensive one, no doubt, to morallyconstipated western minds.

India's contribution would includ the Gurkhas, the Hijras and a relentless sex-seeking sect of the Sikhs. To these she would add a group of splendid brown fishermen living in the eastern region of Orissa along the Bay of Bengal. Known throughout the orient for their handsome bodies, they form enduring friendships among themselves but never with outsiders. Titled Englishmen once tried to break thru the barrier only to run into difficulties a bit upsetting to their aplomb. One attempt to satisfy British curiosity occured in the ruins of The Black Pagoda, an ancient temple some 20 miles inland from the bay. Architecturally it was a masterpiece of unsurpassed beauty; yet it is the woven tapestry of its sculptured figures that dramatically distinguishes it from all other ruins and astounds foreigners viewing it for the first time. They graphically depict every form of sex-

ual congress as described in the Kama Sutra the ancient Hindu religious text on love which, incidentally, may be found in India's libraries and institutions of learning, yet is not permitted in the U. S.

Nor was the author permitted to photograph several figures obviously homosexual. It is in front of them the fishermen assemble each season of the year; whether for a religious ritual or a ceremony peculiar to themselves, no one knows. However, during the war two British naval officers attempted to find out by bribing a young fisherman with a camera. He arranged for them to meet him in the ruins an hour before the others arrived, which was to be at midnight. The following morning the officers, demasculinized, returned to their ship. On what happened at The Black Pagoda they were singularly silent.

In Malaya one sees and smells so much ghastly poverty resulting from the incredibly high birth rate, it is difficult to imagine men interested in anything but breeding, but they are and have been for centuries in Selangor. Here in a mammoth limestone cathedral-like cave, The Batu, they