posed to be engaged in some kind of study of homosexual people. This sweet person kept glowing as she became comfortably reassured that all the gentlemen present were so 'normal' looking, so average in their manner not at all like those horrible queens one sees parading about the street-those types who hang around Pershing Square and are fortunately in the minority among the homosexual population and are certainly not found at refined occasions like our dinner party. The poor dear woman never had the sense to know she was in a male whore house; she didn't even realize it when people started leaving the dinner table, pairing off, and one or two of the boys had to go out on calls. After dinner, as I sat in the living room, a skinny young queen of a hustler sitting next to me leaned over and said, 'when I strip down they go wild.' The whole thing was so two-faced, so hypocritical that I suddenly became all the sadder. I was afraid it was probably true.

"Going to gay bars was once completely new and exciting to me. Not because I like to drink. I don't. If I want to drink I go to a straight bar. I early found out that gay bars are for fun, for meeting people, for picking up dirty old men who will pay and young hustlers who want to be paid; gay bars are for being with friends like yourself, and they are for learning to be yourself. It was in the 1-2-3 and Pershing Square that I found that I could be accepted for what I was. So I decided to try my luck other places. And I found most persons would at least tolerate my feminine character. Very few tried to call my bluff, as it were. And I have always been ready for anyone who does. I am gay 24 hours a day. I am myself, that is, at work just like when I am off work. However, I have three complete wardrobes to go with my one personality: one for work, one

for play, and one for the street. They all make it clear, however, that I am a queen. Strange that I have never wanted to part with my male anatomy like the transsexualist? It has often come in handy. Besides I enjoy my male orgasm too much. I don't think of myself as a girl. I think of myself as feminine. I do not like to make the first approach. I want to be pursued. For that reason I have never cruised a public toilet. Not that I think that anyone should be arrested if they do. No normal man could care less.

"I suppose we all have a small masculine side. I've been to bed with a few fish. In fact, most queens that I know have. It's not that we can't do it, but we don't like it. And I am not going to do what I don't like or try to be something that I'm not. I don't have to prove anything to anybody.

"Every self-respecting homosexual, as soon as he possibly can, should get away from his parents. A homosexual has to make a home for himself even if it is only one room and he is the only one in it. Although my father and mother finally tried to accept me, and we speak and get on generally, as soon as I was able, I got out on my own. I went to live on Clay Street on the east slope of Bunker Hill right under Angel's Flight cable car. I still live near there. A number of the downtown queens live in and around the vicinity. And in the evenings we gather in the Square and talk about silly things like tricks and clothes and parties and husbands. And we always keep our eyes open for something attractive. I don't see how we really hurt anyone. Nobody who is offended has to look twice; and nobody does who is without some interest. You may be surprised at the number of long term, close friendships that queens have with one another. They may have had the same trick in 1944,

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