discovery by myself. I think I would have been panic-stricken if someone had accused me of being homosexual. The painful realization of one's being different and in an unaccepted minority must come gradually and by onesself.
I take great pains to make myself look as feminine in every way possible so that people will never know, for I have learned that we are not really so different from others as people think. We are striving for happiness just the same as everyone else. It is just in the direction we turn that we are set apart.
Dear Mr. Pedersen:
Miss A.
White Plains, N. Y.
I am a South American young man, white, single. I love the bright music and the photography as well as nice youths. I am glad that I am a homosexual. Ever since I was in grammar school I am interested only in pretty boys. When I was fourteen I fell in love with a beautiful lad younger than me. That was the first time I really caressed a naked boy. It was delightful.
I preferred the younger boys because they are so nice and fresh and like a little girl. I like to collect photographs. I am interested too in the Nudist Youth Movement, because I think. that nothing is so beautiful as the nude bodies of the young boy naturists.
Dear ONE:.
Mr. Y. Brooklyn, N. Y.
Last Sunday I was invited to a cousin's home to meet her broher who works in a large hospital. About two years ago a young man in his late twenties was taken to the hospital with a brain tumor that had been neglected too long. He was a partial cripple and was going blind. As a result his parents turned him. over to the county and would have nothing to do with him.
When it was time for him to leave the hospital he had nowhere to go, so my relative took him in and gave him a home. He has since adopted him. I've never witnessed such genuine affection as is displayed by these two for each other. The younger man in particular wants the older man in sight all the time and is holding hands or sits with his arm around him. It is rather a lovely thing to see.
I'd like to see more stories like "Joel Beck" in spite of the few who thought it was terrible.
Mr. W. Provo, Utah
MORE BRICKBATS & BOUQUETS
Dear ONE.
The articles, "Augmented Families," and, "Is There an Alternative" (February, 1960) are related themes on an intriguing possibil-
ity. However, there have been, are, and will be many millions of homosexuals who (like myself) have perforce become inured to personal total aloneness. This is not to say we are not vividly aware of what we are deprived of. We don't like that, but despite the foregoing we are not by any standards irresponsible! Why do we continue to apply these false and degrading labels to homosexualsourselves?
Why do you aid and abet the insane technique the heteros apply? Namely, choosing the worst and the least among us as typical of all of us. How about asserting the fact that we are now responsible. As in science, in business, in management-encourage! Get out of the pulpit!
Dear Staff of ONE:
Mr. H. Brooklyn, N. Y.
You are to be especially commended for your ONE Institute, with its courses and schedule of classes for this, after a period of years, will impress more people with the fact that what you stand for is a serious far-reaching subject on which there is as much conjecture as there are conjecturers (persons speaking and writing on the subject), and there is as little scientific information as there are few people who can approach the subject with a minimum of bias. Sometimes I think that the enormous extent of the problem can best be, measured by the amount of fear it engenders in the general population.
Dear ONES:
Mr. S.
Roanoke, Virginia
I have only been reading ONE since June, 1959, but it has revealed a wealth of information, a heart full of glow, and a stomach full of gripe.
Under the heading the "Amen Corner" I include what you call the editorial. So far I have whole-heartedly agreed with all of them and automatically say, amen. Then come the special items: "The Campaign That Deviated" (November, 1959); "The White Peacock" (January, 1960); the tremendous features "Tangents" and "Books." Information, without adulteration. Thank you.
On to the Warm Heart. Here I find some wonderful stories, among which "Blackbirds' (August, 1959) stands out. Within the topmost glitter of the diamond is Dr. Baker and her superhuman effort to impart help for the troubled in warmth and kindness and understanding. Toward Understanding" could not have been better named, unless you retitled it "The Glow from Dr. Baker's Heart."
Mr. L.
New Orleans, La.
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