secrets

of the

gay

novel

by ann bannon

one

What used to be a theme shrouded in secrecy has lately come out into the sunshine, and come in for a lot of healthy fresh air discussion. The clergy, psychiatrists, sociologists and the homosexuals themselves, have given some candid and helpful thought to the problems homosexuals face and helped to dissipate the ersatz mystery surrounding homosexuality.

Inevitably, the novelists are getting interested. Or rather, since they've been interested for quite some time, let's say they're getting brave. The best and the worst seem to be trying the field: the best for reasons of real sympathetic interest or real personal involvement; the worst for money. The worst have done no good for the cause of enlightened understanding on the part of the general public. But it is true that the relaxed social structures against the very existence of homosexuality, and the enormous flood of literature on the subject have together done more good than harm, if only because they encourage attention and discussion.

It seems to me the novelists have a special strength in that they can show genuine situations and genuine people doing believable things. The psychologists and sociologists are limited to case histories and statistics. These case histories are bound to be pretty gloomy, when you consider the type of unhappy individuals the professionals are seeing. The statistics are dry at worst and bewildering at best.

So the novelists are in a position to make the homosexual real; make his friends, social contacts, his mode of life, his fields of work, his morals, his morale real and understandable to the reading public.

A lot of ground has been broken since that old warhorse, "Well of Loneliness" first saw print in the 20's, but today as then it is still harder to publish books about male homosexuals than about female homosex-

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