EDITORIAL

The occasion of ONE's Sixth Midwinter Institute and Eighth Annual Business Meeting is now passed, having taken place the weekend of January 29-31, and the pleasure of reviewing what was accomplished can be undertaken.

The idea of meeting annually so that we may publicly examine the status and situation of the homosexual is always rewarding, at least for those who are able to attend. The whole weekend must be considered as a contribution made in all earnestness by ONE and its participating guests-most always recognized authorities-who take the field of their experience and relate it to the theme of the program. This year the theme "The Homosexual in the Community" was chosen with the view of helping the homosexual and the general public understand how the social and individual aspects of homosexual living relate and correlate to the community. Of course, it is hoped that an informed public opinion will shape a more intelligent future policy.

People must learn that there are other major contributions to the community besides the creation of a heterosexual home and the peopling thereof. Clergymen and general practitioners especially could hardly rise unrewarded from such extensive and frank discussion as the Annual Institute affords, nor, quite certainly could schoolteachers, who, speaking generally, have been slow to open their minds to the possibilities of the homosexual, although they have ample opportunity to handle young people of both sexes with homosexual tendencies. Judges, policemen and all those who have to do with juvenile and adolescent crime and wrong-doing could come away with a clearer idear of how misguided sex orientation may have something to do with producing irregular behavior. Surely every educated person attending should have much to learn, for if the motto "Know thyself" once inscribed at Delphi has validity, something may be gathered at the meetings to help us understand ourselves and clear up the course of our individual lives.

Does the community understand the homosexual? If so, in what way? Is there a place for homosexuals in community life-at church, at work, at school, etc.? Can the homosexual come to terms with current social values? These are a few of the questions weighed by the experts during the weekend-long program.

Many people might ask if any good can come from gatherings of this sort, where it must be presupposed that those in attendance have a certain amount of education and are able to evaluate the evidence and findings. We feel that the answer is decidedly, yes-and probably directly. And if not directly, much of the population can be effectively influenced indirectly if we continue with the right sort of education. Most people are willing to accept the facts if once they are fairly presented. And most people also realize that many of the conventions surviving from the past cause considerable maladjustments between the individual and the community in which he resides. The purpose of the ONE Institute is to see that these maladjustments between both parties do not continue to exist so far as they are able to be removed in the daylight of knowledge.

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Don Slater, Editor

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