BOOKS

Notices and reviews of books, articles, plays and poetry dealing with homosexuality and the sex variant. Readers are invited to send in reviews or printed matter for review.

"New York's 'Middle-class' Homosexuals," by William J. Helmer, HARPER'S MAGAZINE, March, 1963.

Magazine articles about homosexuality range these days all the way from the leering furtiveness of the pulps and the "cheapies" to those "what this wife did about her husband" pieces in the women's magazines. All of this public discussion appears to be leading on the one hand to a stiffening of the old prejudices and on the other to a better understanding of a very prevalent human condition.

Harper's is to be commended for publishing one of the better of the efforts toward serious appraisal of the situation, and William Helmer is to be commended for essaying what so few of the professionals in the field even attempt a discussion of the question in terms of the society in which we all live.

His approach is on the whole sympathetic and objective, quite free of either the somber ominousness which mars the work of so many writers, or of the frivolous coyness of still others. Members of the in-group quite naturally will find the Helmer scope not deeply penetrating; opponents contrariwise will doubtless react violently to his calmness in the face of what seems to them a disgusting social menace.

The article loosely identifies homosexuality with the male, giving only

passing mention to female homosexuality, in line with what seems to be a popular trend toward speaking of lesbianism and homosexuality terms for male and female homosexuality respectively. The author omits from his estimate of the homosexual population of New York City any mention of the figures for females. Hence, the title of his article is somewhat misleading. There can be no objection for treating the male and female aspects separately if that is one's stated purpose, but it weakens any consideration of the subject as a social question, society being composed about equally of men and of women as it is.

From the standpoint of freelance writing the author doubtless has been practical in limiting his observations to New York City and Harper's edittors are fully aware of what percentage of the Magazine's readers have their thinking oriented New Yorkward, but the limitations of this approach need to be clearly emphasized.

Mr. Helmer does well in pointing out the great diversity of homosexual types and of their ways of living. He runs rapidly and lightly through the standard gamut of mention of gay bars and beaches, the drag ball, of Freudian and other theories of causation. He then discusses questions of status levels and types of employment favorable, or unfavorable to homosexuals all in terms of New York City. His mention of homophile organiza-

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