mate can fulfill
can fulfill every purpose a 'lover' can and yet these relationships tend to endure through the years because they are not complicated by sexual undercurrents.
My roommate and I have just celebrated our tenth anniversary in our little home. We have each had our 'infatuations' over the years but have a standing arrangement whereby we can always come back home'. We
Letters
feel what we have achieved is secure and lasting.
I hope others will benefit from our experiences and find a solution to the greatest problem of homosexual living . . . Friendships, not love affairs, are the basis for a full and rewarding future.
B. J. W.
Austin, Texas
Spot me with this weight, will ya, Mac? Sure I'll give you a lift home after our workout-that is, if you don't mind riding tandem on my bike.
Don Rifle
Santa Monica, California
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE EDITORS FORWARD LETTERS FROM READERS TO OTHER PERSONS NOR DO THEY ANSWER CORRESPONDENCE MAKING SUCH REQUESTS.
Dear Editor:
And now comes Mr. A., of Brooklyn (Letters, February, 1959) with that ancient canard about how the strictly butch guy normally picks up a screaming swish." That's an oldqueen's-tale, if there ever was one. Ask any psychiatrist and he will tell you that we all feel safer when we are with people who seem to constitute no threat to our own cherished image of ourselves.
A frightened chap who is struggling very hard to maintain his concept of himself as "straight" may be upset and hostile when he runs into someone as masculine as himself who turns out to be gay. But a stereotyped fairy, hell! But the man who does not discharge hostility-is not fighting a battle within himself this man will be more attracted to distinctively male individuals like himself. He knows he is gay, and accepts the fact, both consciously and unconsciously.
In my gym are a couple of your frail males who insist that swishes like themselves "make out' better than more masculine types. This I sometimes doubt, because I never see them with any of their conquests. Our "girls" (Lord bless 'em!) do us no favor by claiming that only swishes have any fun. They're way off base.
Dear Sirs:
I very much enjoy reading the current issues of the Magazine, as well as many back copies given me by a friend. The news in "tangents" is always interesting and some of the fiction seems to me quite good. The whole idea of a homosexual publication, with articles, stories and poems, is a fine one. I am very glad that material by and about lesbians is included. After reading ONE I always feel glad, and even proud, that I am homosexual. I am a college student.
Dear Mr. Slater:
Mr. B.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I wish to thank you and your Associate Editors, and all those who directly or indirectly had a part in presenting my article, "A Little of My Life" (March, 1959). I cherish the hope that in my small way I may have helped enlighten others about my human oddity as a female pseudo-hermaphrodite.
Dear Mr. Slater:
Miss Vivian Messetti Los Angeles, California
I wish to ask a favor for myself and the many other new readers you must garner each year. I would like to request that you go through your issues, all of them, and extract for republication the best stories, such as: "Mrs. Cartwright"; "The Key"; "4 O'Clock Tea" (Undoubtedly one of your finest) and collect them in a book as the Finest ONES.
For another collection: during the past few years you have published a number of articles dealing with the rights of homosexuals and the various beliefs held by churches, different countries, the best articles, all compiled as a book. It would be much easier, I believe, to
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