There is no need to recount here the struggle of trying to find the space at a price that could be managed. Some of the story has already been printed in ONE Confidential. Enough to say that the new offices are not downtown, as had been planned; nor in an office building, as had been planned; certainly not at all of the size we had expected to have.
ONE now finds itself occupying all of an airy second floor in a central location that is just a bit outside downtown congestion. The rooms are clean. They are bright and airy. No more daytime electric lights. There is more space than anyone could have dared to expect, yet the rent is no higher than was being asked for half the space elsewhere.
We look around us in wonderment. It is almost as if unseen forces had been pushing and prodding and impelling us to move forward into an entirely new phase of operations. May Day was thus both a day of beginning and of ending for ONE; ending of the old phase of growth-byaccretion and of informal improvisations; a beginning of a new phase whose goals and directions we are now trying to estimate.
Each department and activity is fitting into its own space, uncrowded and uncluttered. There is room to hold all except the largest events in our own quarters. There is privacy and convenience undreamed of in the old offices. The staff can now better perform its duties in furthering the welfare of homosexual men and women, the purpose for which ONE exists.
Each of you who reads these lines, wherever you may live, can take part in this great work-if you will. Tell your friends about ONE: about its two unique monthlies (ONE Magazine, ONE Confidential); about its dignified and scholarly QUARTERLY; about its published books, with more to come; tell about ONE's Social Service work; the educational program on ONE Institute; there is much more you could tell.
Each of you can support financially these varied activities. Many of you could write something for one of the publications. Some of you have books you no longer wish to keep: send them to the Library to help expand its research facilities. Whatever you do, you are doing it for yourself and for your fellows. Let none of us ever forget that any minority has only such rights and privileges as it earns for itself.
Like the chambered nautilus, ONE now has a new home. Everyone is still a little dazed by such good fortune, also its responsibilities, recognizing that every step forward brings new duties, new obligations and new problems. Join with us in measuring up to them, will you not? The homophile movement in America is taking on new dignity these days. Let us make sure that there is substantial backing within ourselves for that dignity. The burden of proving that homosexuals are worthy of all that any human is worthy of falls upon ourselves. Perhaps that is the meaning of the new phase which began this May Day past.
William Lambert
Associate Editor
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