The two articles here presented are the result of the suggestion by Geraldine Jackson in ONE's 10th Anniversary number that a Homosexuals Anonymous modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous should be formed. Valentine Richardson establishes the pattern of what has already been done in this direction; D. V. Vest takes Miss Jackson up on her suggestion.

A Brief History and Commentary of H. A.

by Valentine Richardson

The proposal for a "Homosexuals Anonymous," made in the Magazine by

Geraldine Jackson (January, 1962) is by no means a new one, as I have discovered on looking over my files. In fact, I am told, there was a time when it was just assumed that such was what ONE was intended to be; that it was a therapy center where homosexuals could come for a "cure," by self-help methods like those used in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Also, a good many seemed to feel that homosexuality was such a shameful condition that an organization would have to operate anonymously if it expected to deal with the subject at all. I note an early letter (June, 1953) which expressed that viewpoint, the writer offering to help, provided he could do so anonymously.

Later in that same year another letter-writer proposed the formation (September, 1953) of "Queers Annonymous." This was to be an organization to serve as a protective association for homosexuals, devoting itself to legal aid for those in need of such and to lobbying for changes in the sex laws.

One cannot help but wonder if it

one

were not the word "anonymous" which had the main appeal in those early days. Homosexuals had been living in the shadows for so long that about as far as they would venture in the way of organized effort was in directions where they could still remain unidentified and faceless.

However this might be, we learn that from the very start ONE found itself called upon to help men and women having deep personal problems, and that various kinds of social services had to be provided for these people. In fact, at the very time when so many of us were still thinking of ONE as being solely a magazine, it already was a sort of "Homosexuals Anonymous."

Those who were active so early as 1954 tell me that at that time grouptherapy sessions were being held, somewhat along Alcoholics Anonymous lines but that these did not continue because too few were found who had personal problems of so serious a nature that they wished to keep on attending the meetings. Almost none of these men and women were seeking a "cure."

Still, it was recognized that there

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