leave. She takes the train from Indianapolis and I pick up a very nice English lad and drive on to Seattle. Grandmother is making independent plans for next year. I've learnedfinally!

Dear H. R..

All my love, H. R.

Many thanks for your helpful letter. You have emphasized a point which I had been hoping to discuss in my column. The subject is a controversial one and, no matter what I say, I know there will be some who will take offense. Nevertheless, since we are trying to reach a better understanding of homosexuality in this column I think it is absolutely essential frankly and honestly to face each aspect of the problem even though we may step on a few tender toes. I hope this is the beginning of a discussion of factors which will contribtue to the understanding of the complex condition known as homosexuality.

No one factor in life is the cause for homosexuality. The homophile seems to be the product of the very complex interweaving of environmental and hereditary factors. Chief amongst the environmental factors is the mother or "mother surrogate" influence which is very frequently, and unconsciously, expressed in the life of the homophile, but is just as potent as if it were fully conscious.

According to Kinsey and some others, there is in all mammals, and especially in human beings, a blending of maleness and of femaleness which could be a causative factor in the expression of bi-sexual interest and expression. In homophiles this blending of the two sexes results in sex interests contrary to the apparent sex of the physical body. However, because of our social and cultural taboos, limits are set regarding the degree of social and physical inti-

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macy between persons of the same physical sex. Nevertheless, many homophiles ignore these taboos, and choose a "way of life" in which they secretly, symbolically or openly seek and secure satisfactions, depending on their ability to accept themselves as they are, thus producing an overt type, a bi-sexual type or a repressed type of homophile.

Since the mother is the first female every child encounters, and since this mother has most to do with the shaping and training-or conditioning of the child's body and behavior patterns, all children, homo or not, tend to resent the mother and to carry hidden hostility for her, while she in turn may secretly feel that the child has thwarted her personal ambitions.

In situations where other females take the place of the mother they are referred to as mother-surrogate, mother-equivalent, motherfigure. They may be school teachers, female relatives, a foster parent, wives or "bosses."

Philip Wylie was amongst the first to point out in his controversial book Generation of Vipers that, contrary to popular belief, mothers do not universally "love" their children, nor do all children love their mothers. Countless psychoanalytic sessions have brought out the fact that mother as well as the child may feel unconscious resentments each toward the other.

Thus hostilities are stored up, which, in the case of the infant and child can be expressed only later in life in a bewildering pattern of speech, mannerisms, actions and interests. These expressions on the part of the homophile are what are popularly known as "camping," "gay," "drag," "cruising," "fairy," "faggot," "chicken," "Nellie," "butch," "queen," etc., etc.

Both individual and group psycho-