They had crew-cuts, men's white shirts and levi's! The femmes were cute and well-dressed. The butches were indistinguishable from young, rough-hewn boys!

One part of my mind groaned and the other part laughed. I thought wryly, "It's sure good to know that there's no butch-femme problem anymore!" (And so far as I knew, maybe there wasn't. These youngsters looked pretty pleased with themselves. Maybe the role-playing was satisfactory for all concerned at that particular point in time and space.) A party sat down at a table directly next to me. One of the butches named Wes, struck up a friendly conversation with me. I had hopes of maybe getting some closer insights on the matter when a new group of even tougher looking young girls came in. One was apparently dying to start a rumble and verbally attacked Wes. Wes replied pleasantly and tried to calm the belligerent one down. It didn't work, so after a short while Wes and her little group left. That left me nowhere. I was disappointed, not because a fight had been averted, but because it had cost me the possiblity of a very nice conversation. I floated around, talked to the old waitresses I had known for years. I sought understanding of these wild young creatures. They weren't very helpful.

When I came back, my love had entered into active research work for me. She had found a ki-ki gay girl and engaged her in conversation. It was our lucky night. The girl did not know how things used to be. She was too young. But she did know how things were in that bar. She talked quite freely and honestly as we compared how things were to what they used to be.

From what she told me, I can only tentatively assume that in Los Angeles bar society things are much the same. Worse, if I can believe my

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eyes; but perhaps the transvestite butches are the extreme exception, not the rule. Certainly the distinctions butch, femme, and ki-ki remain along with the strange sexual designations. of butch, femme, dike, bull-dike, or Lesbian. It may come as a distinct shock to some Lesbians to know that in certain gay bars they would be ostracized if they mistakenly referred to themselves as Lesbians, thinking that the term only meant a woman who is sexually attracted to other women. The terminology of the gay bar society is a strange oneone word serving in many different capacities and changing subtly or grossly in meaning from bar to bar and city to city. But the ki-ki ones survive and find peace only when they no longer care what names they are called, cheerfully accept their dual natures and enjoy them.

Does the butch-femme problem affect other types of Lesbians: professional workers, white collar workers and the like those who cannot possibly masquerade as a man and still hold their preferred job? It doesbut in much subtler ways. The balance of masculinity-femininity, aggression-submission, selfishness and love will always be a problem-as it is even with the so-called "normal ones." Mostly, I think, the problem hinges on selfishness or the relative lack of it. Some prefer to call this selfishness "fear and insecurity." Maybe so-but no one could have been more scared and insecure than I was and my masculinity required neither a master nor a slave to survive. Some forms of selfishness are basic for survival, others are not. Allowing one's partner to express his quotient of masculinity-femininity is, I think, basic to how much you respect yourself and are secure in the knowledge of what "yourself" is. Some seem not to know-or are afraid to try to find out. To admit that they are any part woman some-

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