Several weeks were spent in devising the questionnaire. The object was to obtain a cross-section of views concerning rights as currently held by readers of the American homophile press. It was hoped that the breadth and diversity of these views would act as a check upon hotheads or extremists of whatever persuasion who might turn up at the Midwinter

sessions.

A portion of the questionnaire was devoted to personal data, in order that some idea might be obtained as to what kinds of persons were giving these opinions. Participants were invited to write extensively if they found the pages of the questionnaire too restricted. This many of them did.

As the questionnaires and the letters began coming in, and as the classroom work continued to hammer out what it was hoped would be effective methods for arriving at some kind of results in January, it began to appear that the project would be a long-term one. It was seen to be a very big job, although there were those who optimistically hoped a completed "Bill" could emerge from the Midwinter sessions.

However, the more the class wrestled with such terms as liberty, rights, freedom, free-will and similar concepts, the more it came to recognize that some of the greatest thinkers of the past had long struggled to come to agreement about them and that it was highly unlikely that a three or four-day Midwinter Institute could neatly wrap up final conclusions on how to apply these concepts to the homosexual.

By the time the Midwinter sessions convened there had been more than three hundred questionnaires and reams of accompanying letters received. These engrossing documents expressed every shade of attitude and opinion, of approval and disapproval, of personal experiences and of educational levels. Of the first hundred

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received, sixty three favored the idea of a "Bill of Rights" for the homosexual, twenty eight disclaimed the ability to express themselves on the subject, four were neutral, while five expressed outright opposition.

And Then The Session Began

Thursday evening, January 26, an attentive group took part in the final class of the first semester's "Homosexuality in History," HS-210. The conditions prevailing in Sixth Century Byzantium which led up to the promulgation of the famous Pandects of Justinian were described. It was pointed out that these enactments have become the basis of virtually every restriction of the rights of homosexuals which has taken place in the Western world since that time.

Friday was Workshop Day. Those in attendance engaged in a somewhat helter-skelter scanning of the letters and the questionnaires. They were directed to make suitable selections of these to be presented on the following days to the five Drafting Committees as guides to their working on various aspects of the "Bill."

However, the sheer number of the documents involved, as well as the fascinating diversity of their contents, almost bogged down the Workshop group. This practical consideration would indicate that some other method of doing that particular assignment might have been preferable. Also, the number of those able to be in attendance on Friday was not sufficient to make them effective reporters later to each of the five Drafting Committees concerning the basic trends indicated by the questionnaires.

This resulted in the entirely incorrect statement being made at various times throughout the sessions to the effect that it appeared the majority of those replying were opposed to such a "Bill." As the figures cited above indicate, this was overwhelm-

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