homosexuals than against any other minority, and the immediate necessity is, of course, your job. I would estimate that 95% of homosexuals "pass," and I do not think I am under any illusion in believing that 94% would be promptly fired were they to declare themselves.

I can think of no better way of pointing up this blight upon millions of lives and upon society itself than looking into a period of history when it did not exist, which is exactly what Mary Renault does in her novel, The Last of the Wine. (We are fortunate that Miss Renault is also a noted Greek scholar and that nobody questions her historical veracity!) What a different "coming out"! Her young hero has no need for secrecy. He was expected to take a homosexual lover and is even counseled about it by his father. The public disgrace there was not being able to attract a lover. "Coming out" then entailed no secrecy, no hypocrisy, no wearing of the mask. Homosexuality was an integral and very necessary part of the Greek religion and educational sys-

tem.

But today we are not living in the antique days of Greece. Greece was mostly untillable and could not support a large population. Homosexuality was encouraged for this purpose (along with the exposure of excess infants), just as it was in the Cretan and Japanese ancient civilizations. And while it is true that our world is about to have an overpopulation problem, that problem did not exist to the Jewish religion and its

off-shoot, Christianity, when they came to power. The homosexual today "comes out" to an entirely different situation.

However, I think the illustration of the diametrically opposite "coming out" of the young Greek is very instructive for us. It shows that the homosexual was not always in the fix he is in today. And if it happened once in history, it is possible it can happen again. History repeats itself, they say.

Even without the evidence of historical example, we have reason to suspect that "coming out" need not always be the shock that it was for you and me. For in our own lifetime the hostile world has been made less hostile. We have seen one state of the United States actually alter its laws to make legal homosexual love between two consenting adults in privacy. Frankly, I would have laughed at anyone telling me, when I "came out," that such a thing could happen in my lifetime. I'm an optimistic fellow, but such was the ingrained pessimism of the outlook of my generation that "came out" that I could not envisage such a thing.

I can envisage much more now. I can envisage a time when future homosexuals on "coming out" need not ask, "Out from where?" and for an answer have to look behind them and see only the red-hot blind prejudice, and need not ask, "Out into what?" and look ahead and put on the mask. It may be only a vision, but I have seen it.

ARCADIE

Monthly magazine in French; literary and scientific, infrequent photos and drawings. $9. yearly. 74 Boulevard de Reuilly, Paris, XII, France

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