as observers and decoys were apparently so convincing (as well as seductive) in their roles that they were being virtually mobbed by admiring patrons. The raid, which, presumably, was in time to preserve the virtue of the vice squad, also "netted a top Cosa Nostra soldati and two of his aides."

The identities of these gangsters is, of course, of no particular interest to America's homosexual communities. What is important is that homosexuality is once again linked in the public mind with the worst of the anti-social elements in modern society. In a case of this kind, the attitude of most homosexuals is necessarily ambivalent. While resenting still another case of gratuitous and essentially undeserved association with criminal activities, we must at the same time be grateful that public authorities. are taking steps to oust vicious and unprincipled underworld characters from positions where they can add homosexuals to their long list of other victims. As with all other citizens, homosexuals' rights of association include their rights to be protected by public agencies against gangsters and their ilk, and it is to be hoped that authorities in other parts of the country are now on the lookout for mob operations similar to those which have been so recently uncovered in Nassau County. A gay bar does not have to be a "disorderly house" -the charge leveled against Magic Touch Club; but gay bars are certain to become disorderly houses and much worse if the crime syndicates are permitted to infiltrate. MORALS CHARGE RUINS LONG ISLAND MAN

NEWSDAY for 7-13-65 also reported the case of a middle-aged Long Island school supervisor who had just been arraigned on a felony

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morals charge involving a 15-yearold boy. It view of this man's excellent personal and professional reputation locally, the case seems

somewhat reminiscent of the Washington D.C. Jenkins case which received so much publicity in 1964. Friends and associates of the Long Island man are said to have reacted to the news with shock and disbelief. The incident would probably have gone undiscovered had not the man, driving the boy (whom he had picked up as a hitchhiker) and three other teenagers, been involved in a car accident, and in the ensuing investigation the boy reported the driver's alleged sexual advances to officers. From ONE'S point of view, similar incidents take place so frequently that a single instance is hardly newsworthy, but in this case much suffering has resulted for the man, and, doubtless, much confusion for the boy; and the occurrence itself need never have taken place had the participants had a better understanding of themselves and of proper relationships among homophile individuals.

SEX BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER?

Closer to home, sex is trying to bust out all over, or so one would gather from the LOS ANGELES HERALD-EXAMINER's news item of 7-16-65. On or about that date, the Park Commission first granted, then revoked, a picnic permit for L.A.'s Griffith Park, ostensibly requested by a social club which was later discovered to be "an organization calling itself the United Sexual Rights Committee," who privatedly advertised their gathering as a "sex seminar," at which 'sexperts' of all persuasions would be present." The LOS ANGELES TIMES reported the same episode under the heading "SEX NO PICNIC." Perhaps a more ac-