CITIZEN-NEWS report. The bill doing so was authored by Assemblyman Charles Conrad, and is something of a legislative landmark for more than one reason. In the first place, it is in the direction of applying equal legal penalties against both sexes for similar types of potentially harmful sexual behavior, and this, ONE feels, is a valuable step towards the ultimate goal of laws which will establish a single standard of per-

missible sexual behavior regardless of the sex of the participants. But of more immediate importance is the fact that male prostitution, unlike female, shades off abruptly. into the even more sordid crimes of blackmail, violence, and robbery, and the law-abiding, selfrespecting homophile can now began to look for some relief from being victimized by thugs and thieves as he so often has been in the past.

BOOKS

Notices and reviews of books, articles, plays and poetry dealing with homosexuality and the sex variant. Readers are invited to send in reviews or printed matter for review.

FORD

QUEER PEOPLE by Douglas Plummer, with an introduction by Donald Webster Cory, New York, 1965, 122 pp., Citadel, $3.00.

It is to be hoped that one of these days a book about homosexuality may be issued without benefit of an introduction either by the ubiquitous Albert Ellis or the equally prolific Donald Webster Cory. Why is it, the question is, that publishers seem to assume that these writers contribute so indispensably to the publishing pro-

cess?

Such questions aside, Queer People is a pleasant little volume. In nine brief chapters the author describes the ways of living, the habits and habitats of homosexuals in Britain, mainly in London.

Many will term the pages special pleading. Undeniably they a little overdo the pleas for understanding, for

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tolerance and for a better break from Society. Yet, what is said certainly is true concerning parental rejections, police harassments and blackmail threats. Newspapers and the Church also have to take their lumps. Only public body to come off well is the "Homosexual Law Reform Society," which is praised and over-praised for its good works on behalf of homosexuals.

Those who read the book should benefit. Will it be read by those who most would be benefitted? That is the question. In Britain, perhaps so. One wonders how wide its distribution in the United States will be. In sum, it is another part of that press outpouring which these days continues to render homosexuality each year just a bit more discussable than the year before. For its part in that social and literary movement Queer People deserves honorable mention.

H. B.