Letters

The views expressed here are those of the writers. ONE's readers cover a

wide range of of geographical, economic, age, and educational status. This department aims to express this diversity.

READERS ON WRITERS

I would like to contribute the following thoughts in response to previous discussions in ONE.

I have understood, perhaps wrongly, that the real enlightenment in the U.S. has been with the Supreme Court (federal) which, I understand, is appointed not elected. In any case there is a very interesting field of study. in the relationships between the political theory of a country's government and its attitude to the freedoms of individuals and groups. There is no place here to go into the effects of the climate of opinion, the sociological backgrounds which make countries and people what they are, but it seems to me that there is a basic difference between countries with a written constitution and those without. Perhaps it should be narrowed even further to comprise those with written Bills of Rights with a judiciary ever on guard to prevent encroachments on the various freedoms, as against those where there is no tradition of judicial review. In short, those countries which accept accept the British position and make the legislature supreme will tend to have a particular group of attitudes towards rights which fall within the moral sphere, and these will be different from the attitudes upheld in a country where appeal may be made against unjust laws. Both methods have their pitfalls, and it may be harder to change written provisions than it is to make new decisions in common law. Nevertheless, in those countries where the legislature is supreme it is extremely unlikely that a minority will ever be able to achieve any great change in law. This is largely because any legislature is dependent on voting support and is unlikely to favour a measure which brings a great deal of adverse criticism and only a little specialized support.

In my work as a librarian I have had cause to watch the progress of censorship, and the protest against it, in many lands. The record in the U.S. is more than encouraging. I am at present working up a lecture

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on censorship, more on its background and inner workings than on its current performance, and I have frequently come across the statement that pornography is an incitement to crime, and somewhat less often the statement that nothing is really known of its effects. Some people like to look at photographs of nude men. The interesting question is, what effect does this have? What part do pictures play in the sex life of homosexuals? Are they used mainly by those with no other outlets? What age groups do buyers of photos fall into? Are buyers city dwellers or rural? I would like to have any information your readers might have on these questions.

Dear Editor,

B.S.M. Canada

I am simply terrified to learn, through Mr. Barnes' article in last July's issue of ONE, in what a Nazi, immature and puritanical country I have the misfortune to live.

Could Mr. Barnes tell us what poor Frenchmen can do to be nationalized Americans, or how to exchange our out-of-date Code Napoleon for the wonderful liberal Penal Code of California? Surely it would be a great relief for all of us to know that, because evidently the fact that the French code is, as yet, the oldest one not to condemn homosexuality seems seems unbearable to Mr. Barnes, and we should be only too glad to oblige him in going to prison at Los Angeles for homosexual offenses, just to show him how un-liberal we are. Yours (all the same).

OTHER VOICES Dear Editors of ONE:

Marc Daniel Paris, France

I think someone from the gay world should once and for all express an opinion as far as these so-called body-building magazines are concerned. In this month's issue of Manual there is an article called "The Beginners Guide to Cruising." In my opinion this is hardly the thing to be printing in a magazine open to the public. When