eliminate the need for them. I want homosexuals and heterosexuals alike to realize that there already is a homosexual minority, and I hope to cause society to realize that it is society's own discriminatory laws and attitudes which give us our identity as a "minority group." And, there is no other way of looking at it; that is what we are a minority group created by accident of birth and made up of individuals whose rights as individuals and as citizens are abridged by an unthinking and uncomprehending majority. Our gravest danger is not that we should call ourselves a minority, but that we should fail to realize our status, and that we should continue meekly to accept that sta-

tus.

The right to sexual expression is sc basic, so taken for granted, that it is not even mentioned in our Bill of Rights nor in our various constitutions. No legislator, no jurist, no religious leader today has the temerity to attempt to abridge this right except to forbid the use of force or violence against an unwilling partner and to condemn relations with minors. Even these are often condoned, or at least not condemned, if the sex act takes place under the religious aura or within the legal sanctity of marriage. Even the man who begets children he does not want or cannot support and is, consequently, a real detriment to society, cannot, provided he has a willing wife or partner, be restrained from the sex act itself. Yet the heterosexual majority does not hesitate to tell the homosexual that he must "do it our way, do without, or face the consequences." If the right to sexual expression is a basic human right, then the homosexual's right to that expression should be limited only on the same basis as is that of the heterosexual. This is, however, not the case, and hence we are a minority discriminated against by the prejudices of a majority.

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Arcadie, at one point in the editorial I have quoted, boldly says: "We are not even a 'group' at all. We are citizens who happen to have in common certain sexual preferences etc." Herein lies a grievous misstatement. The fact is that we are not citizens at all. It is true that we may hope we are citizens, we may pass as citizens, but we are citizens only to the extent that we succeed in pretending to be heterosexuals, but as homosexuals we are not citizens. As homosexuals we are expelled or forced to resign from the armed forces, as homosexuals we are deprived of the right to work in any government job on any level, we may be deprived of the right to work at any trade, occupation or profession licensed by the state, and, to all practical purposes, we may be deprived of the right to work at all. We cannot, as homosexuals, even depend on the honest protection of the police or of the courts. Even in a civil action, if we appear as a known or admitted homosexual, we may well expect to encounter prejudice. We may, ordinarily, retain our right to vote, but even this is tenuous since there is always the possibility of a felony conviction which could deprive us of this last vestige of citizenship. There is an even greater injustice. Even the most flagrant law-breaker can be deprived of his rights as a citizen only after trial for and conviction of a specific crime, whereas the homosexual, more often than not, may be deprived of some or all of his rights on suspicion alone or for the mere presumption that he has committed or may some day commit a crime.

From one point of view it is fortunate, and from another perhaps most unfortunate, that the average homosexual is able to pass as a citizen. Unlike many minorities, the homosexual is unmarked by color, by facial or other physical characteristics, or by language or speech, and consequently

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