cleared by the courts). The filmcensorship law under which the raid was staged had been unconstitutionalized a few days beforeopening possibilities for false-arrest suits, and for damages against papers and broadcasters who made libelous statements about the society.

The 7th Mattachine Convention was held Labor Day in San Francisco. Joseph Silver, Exec. Dir. of the Nor. Calif. Service League, discussed the League's excellent work in rehabilitating those otherwise neglected persons (many homosexuals) who come out of jail having lost jobs, money, reputation and friends. Harry Benjamin, M.D., noted sexologist, endocrinologist and gerontologist, gave a sprightly and original talk on "The Seven Sexes of Man"-to be printed in SEXOLOGY (of which he is an advising editor) and MATTACHINE REVIEW. An afternoon panel, chaired by perky attorney, Mrs. Mollie Minudri, former head of local antiobscenity drive, featured 2 leaders of the Calif. State Assembly, John O'Connell and Philip Burton, who forcefully evaluated the political methods and chances of changing our outmoded sex laws, and were in the midst of some interesting and specific proposals for tackling the problem when the 2 psychiatrists on the panel, Joseph Andriola, Ph.D., and David W. Allen, M.D., diverted the panel from its announced topic to an old-hat (but lively) rehash of the argument about cause and cure of homosexuality. Mrs. Bernice Engle, who'd worked on the important Calif. study of sex deviation (Langley Porter Report), livened the discussion with pertinent references to the Wolfenden debates... ROUNDEDO

Censorship drives, under local laws not yet individually de-con-

one

stitutionalized, continue in Penna, Ohio, etc. . . . Other cities should learn from SFrancisco example, where a big-noise anti-"smut" group was upstaged by Atty. Morris Lowenthal, who set up a "Right-toRead Committee," and promised to dog the vigilantes' tracks-they promptly folded. If people would organize "Freedom-to-Read" groups wherever the "Citizens for Decent Literature" set up their prurient sideshows (recently in New Orleans, Cincinnatti, Chicago, L. A., etc.) and demand equal radio and press coverage, the censors wouldn't get far. The C.D.L. got less coverage for their crackpot appeal in L. A. last week than the SFrancisco papers had just given the Mattachine Convention....

CANADA: Cleaner's tag on jacket worn by a Detroiter when he was stabbed to death in June, led to arrest in London, Ont., of a Canadian -who confessed. They'd met thru a pen-pal club. Johnson, age 24, former police clerk and a "woman hater," had stabbed Langiness 52 times in back and wrists, tho oddly, cops at first labelled it a suicide. ...

United Church of Canada (since 1925, an incorporation of Dominion. Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists) approved for study a 68 page report on marriage, parenthood and sex which included a strong position on homosexuality. "The Christian is no prude," the report says, "but his standards are high, and he attempts, with God's help, to be true to them." It insists that not only psychological disturbances, but also physiological and social factors must be considered when looking for the cause of homosexuality.

"There are some popular misconceptions which arise from overemotional reactions to this problem. For instance, it is generally believed that homosexual feelings are less