tangents

news & views

by dal mcintire

The American homophile movement took a great stride forward toward maturity with the Mattachine Society's Sixth Annual Convention held this Labor Day weekend in Denver. The gay and beautiful Rocky Mountain city made a happy and lasting impression on the visitors from outside Colorado at the fourday meeting-17 from California, 4 from New York, 3 from Illinois, 2 from Massachusetts and one each from Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Michigan, Hawaii, Kansas and Wyoming. Twenty-three Coloradans registered for the convention, and a number of other persons made brief appearances. The arrangements had been well made by the efficient and smoothly organized Denver chapter of the Society, and the whole program went off extremely well.

The most surprising gain was in the matter of publicity. While American homophile organizations haven't hitherto been publicity-shy, none of them have ever taken the time or trouble to properly organize an effective publicity campaign. This the Denver group did, with publicity releases, personal contacts with newsmen, and press confer-

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ences in which representatives of the Daughters of Bilitis and ONE, Inc., participated. The result was a full and fair coverage of the convention, in both the DENVER POST (five stories) and the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (four stories).

As the POST said on Sept. 5th: "Serious, intelligent and open discussion of a basic human problem is the aim of the sixth annual national convention of the Mattachine Society, Inc., now in session at the Albany Hotel, the editor of the National Matachine Review said here Saturday.

"Harold Call of San Francisco said the convention theme is 'New Frontiers in Acceptance of the Homophile.' The Friday night and Saturday sessions and the sessions Sunday all were scheduled as open. to the adult public.

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'The idea is to talk frankly about homosexuality-what it really is, and the intelligent attitude to take in facing the problems it poses for society, Call said.

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Among those you love most deeply there is likely to be at least one homosexual person. It could be a son or daughter, brother or sister.

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