THE HOMOSEXUAL

AND THE

There are many pseudo-Beatniks. There are even pseudo-pseudo-Beatniks. Of the latter I am not speaking. They can be dismissed without much consideration except the harm and bad name they have caused the genuine Beatniks. These pseudos are the "week-end" roughs and toughs, the "mixers-for-kix", that invade the areas in which the Beatniks live and

BEAT GENERATION congregate. In San Francisco a great

GINSB

by

Wallace

de Ortega Maxey

many of the Beatniks are moving out of the Grant Ave. section in North Beach because of these interlopers and the gawking tourists. This gang of "kix" hoodlums consist of heterosexuals in the larger number. They are those who like to "cash-in" on the daring and non-conforming Beats. Having money in their pockets, they think they can out-buy, out-bid and out-sex the Beats. The few homos in this tribe of week-enders are of the timid sort who can't make it in their own everyday world and in despair hope to find "satisfaction" in the world of the beat generation. However, this is not to imply there are no normal homosexuals among the regular Beatniks. They are about as equally divided in this area as they are in any portion of the total social structure. No more, no less.

There is a distinction to be made between the beat-homo and the nonbeat. The beat-homo has no inhibitions. Within his own consciousness he has accepted himself and is completely integrated. He is not fighting himself, much less the rest of the world. This applies to the male as well as the female of the species. He doesn't give one goddam what the world thinks about him. Like the rest of the beat generation he simply wants to be left alone. He has closed his mentaldoor to the rat-race. He has cut himself off from the shams and shamans of the competitive world. He is usually of the aesthetic type, psychologically, not necessarily so physically.

5