EDITORIAL

It was not lightly that ONE's founders chose their name from Carlyle's line, "a mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one." For while our short-term objectives are limited to finding immediate ways to help the homosexual in the intolerable conditions in which he is likely to find himself—that is, a program of individual social service and reeducation--our ultimate concern goes much deeper.

The problem of homosexuality must in the long run be fitted somehow into a dynamic and holistic context which takes into account the aims and ideals, the progress and the frustration of the whole human society. Any approach to homosexual problems which fails to relate to the problems of humanity as a whole is doomed to failure. It is our devoutly shared belief that this common interest of ours is not a minor or unrelated matter, a matter of concern to overt homosexuals alone.

This means several things to us. It means that homosexuals have a stake, both as citizens and specifically as homosexuals, in the broader issues that face this country and the world. It means that, although our focal interest here is homosexuality, yet because of that common bond of brotherhood with all men, no subject, no human problem, is foreign to us. Though our individual approaches may differ, we each recognize our interest in the affairs of the whole world, the dangerous political frictions that threaten the world, the ambitions and dislocations and stultifications, and the frightening population explosion, the technological dilemma and the moral dilemma facing all mankind.

We are immediately concerned with civil rights for homosexuals, with mental health for homosexuals, with self respect and public acceptance for homosexuals, and with individual security in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for this latest minority to claim these natural rights.

But ultimately we are concerned with investigating and helping to establish reasonable links between this minority and society. Without yet agreeing on what the homophile's "place" may be, we feel that this group must, for the better health of the social body, be granted certain recognized roles for which it is by nature equipped--as has been the case in many other societies.

This is not idle theory. Despite the reluctance of our present society even to recognize the group existence of homosexuals, individual homophiles have historically seized important roles in the service of society. They have exerted a cultural and historic force far out of proportion to their numbers, whether as soldiers or philosophers, as scientists or writers, as politicians or dancers.

We are hardly so sanguine as to be certain that we can achieve the happy condition of social equality and acceptability easily, or soon, or at all, perhaps. But we are convinced that these goals can only be reached as part of a larger view which considers the interest of society as a whole, as well as the interest and desires of the individual homosexual. We believe further that those others who are concerned with general world problems can never get them into proper perspective while they still turn their backs on the problems of the homosexual. Lyn Pedersen, Associate Editor

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