They have their counterparts in the heterosexual world-the perennial bachelors. To the others I say that their surest hope for a happy and worthwhile life lies. in the establishing of a home and permanent relationship with a loving companion. That this is no easy task to accomplish I am well aware; there is no set formula for success but the rewards are more than worth the effort involved.

"Now just a minute," says the sceptic. "This sounds just fine, but I've been around the gay world for a good many years and know of no such long-time affairs. True, one hears of couples getting together from time to time, but in a couple of months they break up and the merry-go-round starts again.”

I agree, regretfully, that this is only too true. But it is largely true only in so far as our sceptic's circle of acquaintances is concerned. What our friend may not be fully aware of is the fact that not all the gay people in a particular city are in close contact with their own kind and it is primarily among this minority within the minority that the successful relationships are to be found. Our gay scepticand I have met many of them is, to all practical intents, virtually unaware of this other group and thus it is hardly likely that he would be acquainted with their way of life differing as it does so greatly from his own.

Homosexual "marriages" fall roughly into three categories. I write "roughly" because you cannot reduce human nature to a mathematical equation-something the psychiatrists have yet to realize.

In the first group, then, we have the couples that belong to a wide and very gay circle. Life consists of a continual round of bars and parties and week-end trips. Having met, and mainly on the strength of a mutually enjoyable one-night-stand, they decide "this is it," they are now madly in love and going steady. The trouble begins in about 95% of these cases when both boys decline to give up the type of life to which they are accustomed. It is beyond reason to expect a relationship to withstand the constant temptations, jealousies, artificiality and gossip to which it would be exposed under these circumstances. One month-two, in a rare case perhaps a year and then, as our critic says "the merry-go-round starts again." I imply no criticism of "gay life" in the above remarks society has left the single homosexual no alternative after rejecting and cutting him off from more normal pursuits, but the gay environment is deadly to the healthy growth of a permanent relationship.

In the second group we find those couples (and a great many singles also) who, apart from a small group of close friends have virtually no contact, social or otherwise, with the gay world that swarms about them. Rarely, if ever, are these people found in the gay bar or other such gathering-places. The couples exchange visits with each other and perhaps one or two older, single gay friends. Many of them either own or are in the process of buying their own homes and thus they are able to entertain whenever they wish, without question. If they decide to go out for an evening it is usually to the neighborhood bar, local theatre or other forms of recreation frequented by their normal neighbors.

Also in this group are to be found those who, while fully aware of the homosexual world about them, have decided to cut themselves off from it completely. To do so effectively, they usually move to a distant town or city and for them, the gay world ceases to exist. The gay world, meantime, is totally unaware of their existence-and this is exactly what they want.

It is in this second group, I believe, that the majority of long-time relationships are to be found. It does not have, certainly, as many members as the first but nonetheless, it is still much larger than even the gay world itself believes. And

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