EDITORIAL

. . .

With any comprehension of the social system in which he lives today, any homosexual will immediately grasp many of the illogical inequities suffered by his group, and as any man in the street who feels he is being victimized, he will seek to mitigate his persecution by whatever means he possesses He realizes that the fights for Catholic and Jewish acceptance, Non-Segregation, Votes For Women, Labor Unions and such have not been won simply. His membership in a vast unorganized minority suddenly becomes a challenge to him, and no reasonable man can condemn him for thinking of his own welfare in these terms.

However (and here he hits his first big snag), in seeking to identify his most dangerous adversaries in the society, business, and government of today, it does not take him long to recognize several ultra-dogmatic sects of organized religion as the "brains" behind those legions of uninformed who refuse to understand his dilemma and who would prefer to see him destroyed to living the useful life of an average citizen. The problem is a serious one, for not only is the average homosexual inclined to be deeply devout, but when he quotes modern medical attitudes that treat him as an understandable phenomenon, or questions the reactionary teachings of an established church, his politics are immediately called into question. . .

Most homosexuals have a great respect and admiration for the life and teachings of Jesus. Christianity is not incompatible with their natures. Imagine then, the reaction of the homosexual when some member of a pompous ministery tells him he is damned if he expresses his love for his fellow man in a way that seems completely natural to him, because it does not have the blessing of a clergy that can sanction only a sexuality resulting in the procreation of offspring! Jesus' defense of the fallen woman from the stones of her tormentors obviously did not mean what the homosexual thinks it does

Fortunately, all of America's religious sects are not so hidebound. I've been told the more liberal ones are growing at a most satisfactory rate. Last week a minister, who also has been elected twice to his state's legislature, told me, "Once the Christian Church had the power of life and death over the populace. Today it is forced to sell itself on an open market like toothpaste or soft drinks or razor blades. It's an excellent situation, for the sects that do not progress satisfactorily will die, and that's as it should be." Most encouraging words from a minister whose congregation can be counted in a few score. Across the street, however, there is another group that number as many hundreds who interpret tolerance in quite another way and to whom homosexuality ranks high on a long list of similar anathemas. Politically powerful, rich, dogmatic, puritanical, spoiling for a fight to the death with anyone who challenges its strength, it reminds me most unpleasantly of something Stekel, the famous Viennese psychiatrist, wrote several years before I was born. "Religious teachings always adjust themselves to the social needs of their day and even fulfill them. Religious formulae prove meaningless only to the progressive, emancipated, free and forward-striving persons, the imperatives of religion are superfluous only for those above the average. The crowds must cling to religious formulae and will always need sexual inhibitions of a religious nature." Even so, the handwriting would appear to be on the wall for future generations of queer-baiters.

Game of Fools

one

James Barr

Kansas, 1954