STATEMENT OF POLICY REGARDING

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

submitted to

THE AMERICAN CIVIL

LIBERTIES UNION OF

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

by Vern L. Bullough, Chairman Committee on Sex & Civil Liberties

The following official statement of policy by the Southern California Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union marks one more milestone on the path of American homophiles upward toward legal and social equality from a status which in many ways has been little better than that endured by Negro slaves in the 19th Century.

In recognition of the truly significant contribution this policy statement now makes on behalf of the civil liberties of homophiles the text is here reprinted in full. Commenting upon this new ACLU policy statement the Los Angeles TIMES (December 21, 1965) under a two-column headline quoted Committee Chairman Dr. Bullough as saying that it is not a crime to be a homosexual, but it is illegal to engage in a homosexual act, a situation which long has been studied also by the American Law Institute.

Illinois alone of the American States has legislatively removed this absurd and inequitable legal situation. Attempts to take similar steps have been under study in several other States. In Britain, ever since the completion of the famed Wolfenden Committee Report to the British Parliament in 1957, efforts have also continued to reform English laws, although so far without success.

It would seem to be a clear trend of the times that the civil rights goals toward which ONE so long has labored, should at last be yielding some very tangible results. The role of others working toward these same

6