EDITORIAL

The awareness of being different and alienated from the rest of society often gives homosexuals the conscious wish to belong or be loyal to their own group or to some individual within it to a distorted degree. Even if the loyalty is not merited, it is still possible to find homosexuals who will support conduct and behavior which are reprehensible by any standards simply because it is being done by another homosexual.

Being outside the law themselves in one area of their conduct, many homosexuals tend to lose all respect for the law and any sense of social responsibility to the community they live in. They probably hesitate to pass judgement on the other fellow's conduct lest it appear that the pot were calling the kettle black. But where persons trespass on the rights of others, it is wrong whatever the offender's sexual orientation.

We at ONE have been approached more than enough times by persons who have felt that we should support them or their friends in their criminal activity just because they were homosexual or sympathetic to homosexuals. On the contrary, it is our feeling that homosexuals have a double duty to see that what they do does not offend the rights of anyone else. We are well aware that homosexuals frequently do not get just treatment for the reason that they are homosexual, and it is the purpose of ONE to correct this situation. But blackmailers, thieves, bad check artists, pimps, prostitutes, etc., find no refuge at ONE; nor do the criminals who frequently come to us for aid and, while not homosexual themselves, will use this plea in order to obtain compassionate understanding and tolerance.

Homosexuals should never be punished simply because they are homosexual; by the same token, homosexuals should never be aided and supported just because they are homosexual. We homosexuals are bound together and integrated by our sexual preferences. The views and emotions that form this cohesiveness should not be used to discredit the law-abiding homosexual. So in deciding what our attitude toward our fellow homosexuals will be, it is important to distinguish between acts that are merely contrary to current sexual vogue in our society and those which actually injure someone.

Don Slater, Editor

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