In spite of the fact that so far as I know these publications are legally transmitted through the mails, apparently the amount of them and the fact that mailing lists evidently were sold to "art studios' which furnish individual pictures had been noted by the postal authorities.
Some of his foreign magazines failed of delivery, others arrived slit open. Some of his widely spread correspondents failed to receive his letters, sent first class. He was notified by a postal inspector that he was sending improper matter through the mails and warned to desist forthwith or be prosecuted.
Such interception of mail is no doubt illegal, but what does the ordinary citizen do in such a case but pretend to bend the knee to our moral police state? Although my friend of course circumvented the postal Gestapo by very simple means and still gets his mail.
So, Pen Pals, don't worry about being hit over the head-you are much more likely to be pinched.
Dear ONE:
Disturbed Citizen Washington, D. C.
I can't help making a small, possibly sharp but, believe me, very sincere comment on your recent to-do about the service which you seem to be dangling like a carrot in front of the sometimes glinting eyes of certain readers. It seems to me, gentlemen, that unless you mean definitely to go ahead with the project, you are playing (calling a spade a spade) a completely rotten trick on these young men and women in ever having brought up the idea at all.
These letters aren't literary exercise; they're what the French call "cris du coeur"; cries for help from the heart. Just how are you giving help in this respect? If you mean to give it, then plainly you should have done so in the first place without any shenanigan of pretending to ask your readers first for an opinion. If, on the other hand, this notation of yours reflects law, then your having raised the issue. has simply been a cheap device to get circulation. To say that a trick of this sort against so many readers is unworthy of the purpose of ONE is putting it-well, mildly.
Please don't take this comment of mine as carping against the work you do generally. I know of no other publication to which I'd bother to write in this way at all. But we all of us set, rightly, rather high standards for those whose work we respect fundamentally. Mr. R. Montreal, Quebec
Dear Editors:
May I express my appreciation for the way you pay us the compliment of presenting various sides of many questions, then letting us make up our own minds. I, for one, have much enjoyed the lively controversies raised by such
one
questions as Pen Pals, Homosexual Marriage, Religion and other topics you have tackled.
Don't let us, your readers, put you off your course by our complaints. Keep hammering at us. We may not like it a little bit, but when are we going to start growing up both socially and intellectually? I have a rather confused but still firm conviction that we homosexuals are heading into a period that will either make or break us. Which it is to be will depend on us. Mr. J. Austin, Texas
DISCOVERY & ACCEPTANCE
Dear Sirs:
I came to this country three years ago as a refugee, when I was twenty years old. I had trouble to adjust myself to a great many American customs, especially in customs what I couldn't ask anyone how it is. However I love this country and have no homesickness at all.
My main trouble was I did not want to accept myself in the way I am. In the recent months I had to give up this senseless fight. However I was still depressed, when I found ONE at a newsstand. Now I can say, I rather be abnormal" here than "normal" where I am from.
Gentlemen:
Mr. H. Philadelphia, Pa.
I have just spent several months undergoing treatment on the psychiatric couch and have come to accept and understand the meaning of my status of inversion.
Unfortunately, I have suppressed my inner desires all twenty-six years of my life because of my inability to understand them. I now wish to break my suppression and adjust accordingly within the world of inverts. My psychiatrist has suggested one such possible step might be the investigation of your organization and its functions. I would appreciate hearing from you in this regard.
Dear Editors:
Mr. H.
Huntington Park, Calif.
I want to thank everyone on the staff of ONE for being the creators of a means of communication for people who are actually interested in the problem of homosexuality. I have consumed many pocket novels and psychology books in my desperate attempt to discover all that I possibly can about myself and people like me. It's nice to know that there are plenty like me and that I'm not such a rarity.
It wasn't until a year ago that I was able to admit to myself in so many words that I am a homosexual and have no conscious desire to be anything different. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had not made this
30