ONE thoroughly agrees with all of this, but nevertheless is even more concerned with the plight of the draftee who IS homosexual. If he says so, but has no record, and is not the extreme androgyne type, he is disbelieved and inducted anyway, and the same, of course, holds true for the far greater number who, also willing to serve their country, say nothing, or deny their homosexuality. In either case, once in uniform, they are targets for an unrelenting homo-hunt where mere suspicion (not to mention discovery) carries savage penalties which can destroy their entire future. In a situation where as many as 1 in 25 servicemen may be homosexual, and where military arrests for homosexual behavior may equal half the total (SEXUAL BEHAVIOR & THE LAW, S. G. Kling, Bernard Geis Associates, 1965) the official military persecution of homosexual servicemen with its sadisticallyperverted attack on their ordinary civil and human rights is a national disgrace. Homophile organizations throughout the country are increasing their protests, and may certainly be expected to so continue, until this blot on our country's administrative policies, both civil and military, has been removed.

SELF-DEFENSE NO DEFENSE IN MURDER CASE

At least not defense of one's "manhood," according to the verdict of a jury recently trying a case at London's Old Bailey. The story, carried by ESQUIRE for October, 65, describes the prosecution of three young hoodlums for beating a homosexual to death, having first dined with him at his flat, then bound him and ransacked the apartment for loot. The principal defendant, through conflicting testimony, completely discredited his

22

own defense, even as his counsel attempted to shift sole guilt to another of the trio. The latter testified, through barristers, that his host had "made a pass" at him in the bathroom, that he "went berserk," and that it was "manslaughter in self-defense." Counsel told Judge Stevenson that this defendant "had a horror of homosexuals. He told the witness that he had been indecently attacked as a small boy." The Judge, consulting the previous testimony, reminded the lawyer, "He told a witness he WOULD SAY he had been attacked as a boy,"making sure, by a glance at the jury, that they got the point. The final verdict murder; and the sentence for all three-death. The case itself has an all-too-familiar ring for American homophile readers, but unfortunately the verdict does not. The correspondent who sent the item comments in the margin, "Her Majesty's Incorruptible, Imperturbable, Incomparable Judges!"

GENE BECOMES JEAN

As reported by the WASHINGTON D.C. DAILY NEWS for 10/4, this "voluntary sex change operation (recently performed on a 30-yr.-old male sex offender in Oregon State Penitentiary)-is believed the first performed in the U.S. It is almost certainly the first time it has been used by prison authorities as part of a convict's rehabilitation. The surgical change was the culmination of what Jean called a lifetime search 'for an

identity'." Jean is now living as a woman, and "claiming to be the 'happiest' she has ever been."

PRIVATE CLUBS DENOUNCED

Kinsey estimates for 1960, cited in By the extremely conservative Marmor's SEXUAL INVERSION, Chap. 5 (see review in ONE, Sept.,