Letters

Dear Friends:

Why not a civil rights activist group? A non-violent committee to selectively participate in CORE and other demonstrations isn't outside the spirit of ONE is it? I am not suggesting that ONE as an organization take to the picket lines. But you could editorially recommend involvement and committment. I encounter too many homosexuals who don't see the parallel between the struggle of the homosexual and the struggle of the Negro. The homosexual concern is our primary concern, but is there no value in aligning ourselves with kindred concerns? If our goal is to escape the scapegoat caste, would it not be served by joining openly in the civil rights movement?

Dear Mr. Lambert:

Mr. Douglas Empringham San Francisco, California

I definitely think that ONE, as an homophile organization, is a bit too patriotic-or is that temporarily due to the Goldwater craze? It seems to me and some other readers of ONE that in recent months you are trying to prove that you are Americans first (and homophiles second) like other minorities of Jews, Negroes and Catholics

have to to prove that they they can be good

American citizens at the same time. Your sentences like "Americans love their country. and they are proud of it and proud of being Americans" is really a bit too much. It reminds me of the American parish priest who told his congregation that he had been happy to see the American flag out before so many homes on the 4th of July, because that shows that Americans still love freedom, and freedom is close to the heart of God.

While "you know of no instances in which all (bar) visitors were arrested" and you report that agent provocateur is a French phrase, speaking of conditions in the United States, the recent Life (June 26) article has quite factually and realistically reported the incredible means by which the U.S. police are interested in keeping America free from

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homosexuals. Now, this happens in some European countries also, but the point I was trying to make is that America considers itself the world leader of democracy and freedom, it is expressed in every public speech by their representatives, it is engraved on all monuments and the foundation of their historical and national declarations. While it is true, as you say, that Vriendschap et al cannot be sold here on newsstands to protect early teens, as in America, pen-pal clubs are permitted here in most countries and first class mail privacy is honored throughout Europe. Homosexuals are made fun of the world over, but legally, they are not hunted after by the police in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, as long as no one under 21 is involved. The club in Switzerland was closed because minors were in.

The Editorial of June, 1964 is not worthy either of your generally attained standard, for it's entirely silly. To compare the homosexual condition with the silence of the wartime Pope and to say that "we" are like the Jews who did not defend themselves against the Nazi Germans is senseless and if one thinks about it, unbearable: what would Mr. Glover do with a pistol before his stomach-or is he a young angry man?

Mr. Lambert, ONE is doing an excellent service to all of us. You are actively helping our young and hopeless boys socially and doing high calibre work through publications. Lately you have given us realistic and pleasing photos as the two boys (April and June covers) but they definitely look much nicer from the front! (Editors note: The one on the left IS Mr. Glover.)

Finally, may I express the hope that you will always stress the steady emotional relationship which only can give full satisfaction physically and mentally between two human beings, instead of the promiscuity which in our days is unfortunately synonymous with homosexuality and immaturity.

Dear Sirs:

Mr. P. A. V. Ghent, Belgium

I read a back issue of your Magazine and gave it to a friend and of course it started a chain reaction. He gave it to another and

so on.

But the thing that most struck me was the fact that the issue was entirely dedicated to homosexuality and religion. I am a homosexual and a devout buddhist. I have been both for a long time. And I am sure that there are others like myself. There are an estimated 165,000 Buddhist people in the U.S.A. One fifth of the state of Hawaii is

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