EDITORIAL

It now appears that the fanatical prohibitions of the Church and State imposed on human sexual life with the resulting neuroses, physical and moral sufferings, despair and bitterness created thereby, are undergoing an incredible change. It is all linked with the current trend to face world population problems realistically. How sad that we should have had to wait for the fear of overpopulation to justify the fundamental freedom to sex acts outside the narrow frame of reproduction. It is even more sad to consider the mental characteristics of the men and institutions who have been responsible for our sexual slavery all these years. We have all seen the mores, dominated by exacting puritans, persecute those independent sexual impulses that did not lead to unwanted children. We have seen the law, in our own nation, become an accomplice of the religious prohibitions by making criminal offences of sexual relations accomplished outside this procreative frame.

ONE Magazine has continually urged some form of birth control as a "brake on over population." It has specifically suggested homosexuality as a safe, sane, and legitimate, if controversial, form of contraception. We have always acknowledged that the contraceptive effect of the homosexual act is one of the blessings of homosexual living. It naturally follows that if one admits the use of any form of contraception or birth control, which the Church does not, then one must accept the homosexual. He, in a way, becomes a virtue in this regard.

People have complained about ONE's position. But, after all, birth control isn't controversial with most people. It is estimated that 75% of all American married couples practice some form of contraception. All states now except Massachusetts and Connecticut permit birth control clinics to dispense information. Last December, Illinois became the seventh state to use public welfare funds to provide contraceptive

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