Letters

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO THE EDITORS FORWARD LETTERS FROM READERS TO OTHER PERSONS NOR DO THEY ANSWER CORRESPONDENCE MAKING SUCH REQUESTS.

THE M.D. VIEWPOINT

Dear Sirs:

As both a non-homosexual and a (don't get angry) psychiatrist, I was most interested to see ONE Magazine on sale at newsstands in Philadelphia. I must say I was somewhat disappointed in it, with its subtitle, "The Homosexual Viewpoint." For, outside Editor Alison Hunter's comments, the entire Magazine seemed to echo Edmund Bergler's thesis that homosexuals are all "injustice collectors."

I could only surmise that your authors, at least, were somewhat hypocritical in their insistence that theirs is a way of life," for their blaming their unhappiness upon a cruel and unjust society seemed very much to be only skin deep.

I might say that the only homosexuals I have come in contact with were all very unhappy with their way of life," looked upon it as an illness, and wished to be "cured." But they did all come to me of their own free will, so it is a select group, and only one out of six did achieve a "cure.

Dear Dr. B.:

Mr. B., M.D. Philadelphia, Pa.

In reply to your letter, as you have noted, the Magazine is designed to represent "The Homosexual Viewpoint," which quite possibly may represent as wide a range and diversity as, shall we say-psychiatrists?

For instance, reader's views on Bergler characterize him all the way from being a rather pathetic leftover of the Vienna era, to a mercenary and opportunistic charlatan.

If you should wish to write something derived from your practice for publication in our periodicals I would add a note of warning: our readers would be merciless with such a statement as yours about unhappy homosexuals who wished to be "cured." Why should happy homosexuals, of whom there are many, consult a psychiatrist at all?

This, of course, is the fatal flaw in the case-history approach to the subject. Psychiatrists and psychologists seem, in far too many

cases, to have regressed into comfortable burrowings far distant from life in the round. We might even say that psychiatrists and psychologists as a group are uninformed about homosexuality and homosexuals, although well-informed concerning maladjusted, disturbed homosexuals.

Dear Sirs:

W. Dorr Legg, Director ONE Institute, Los Angeles

I would be most interested in meeting professional people who are actively engaged with homosexual problems: lawyers, psychologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, physiologists, biochemists, biologists, researchers, physicians, law enforcement officials and others.

One subject everyone is aware of who is homosexual is the pronounced promiscuity of homosexuals in the majority. What disturbance does this stem from? It is a must in any investigation, for it in itself ruins the life of a homosexual male: it repeatedly makes him. an isolate; in the constant search for new partners it runs him afoul of the law too often makes him an object of blackmail and the prey of the criminal; his homosexuality becomes known to the community thus often cutting off his social and economic life.

The problem is: Is promiscuity in the homosexual a misunderstanding due to an underlying cause or causes which can be removed? Or is it a symptom of a deeper lying disturbed psychologic disturbance?

What is now the situation in life of the homosexual in societies where homosexuality between consenting adults is legal, as in Sweden and other northern European countries? Such a situation has been in force there for a reasonable number of years and answers should be forthcoming.

Mr. K., M.D. Imperial Valley, Calif.

HOMOSEXUALS AS A GROUP

Dear Sirs:

There is much emphasis upon the disunity between homosexuals. Of course we're not united. We've been discouraged by people, and foolishly we've taken their advice, but if we don't unite and give solid support to organizations such as ONE, then nothing will ever be accomplished.

Being Gay definitely should not be looked upon with any shame or embarrassment by the homosexual.

We ARE different from heterosexuals and should be proud of it, proud of the other men and women who share equally all the fear, loneliness and prejudice.

Frankly, the ones I utterly despise are those who find nothing good in the homosexual. Look at your friends-aren't they worth fighting for? We need union more than anything else. Our salvation is in union, so how dare

29