EDITORIAL

The following essay, although not in the usual form for an Editorial, contains so many points which express ONE's own viewpoint that it has been chosen this month as a Guest Editorial. It has also been felt that in fairness to its author the Editor owed it to him to let readers see that not all of his writing is painfully severe in tone, an opinion some of our correspondents have seemed to hold.

Richard Conger, Editor

Pity the poor heterosexual who sets out in all good conscience to "accept the homosexual." At civil rights meetings he has become fired up with slogans about equality for all citizens. Ministers have told him that as the children of God he must cherish the inherent dignity of all men even, as he now realizes, of homosexuals. So, with head high, eyes clear and shoulders squared, he sallies forth. And what happens?

What happens is that he begins to wonder how to find the homosexuals he is now so anxious to accept. For instance, having told his wife about his project he hears that Mrs. Jones is worrying about her teen-age son because of some rather strange behavior of late.

Next time he goes golfing with Jones, over drinks back at the clubhouse, the subject is delicately broached. "Al, I'm glad you asked me," says Jones. "We've been very worried. Winifred can talk these things with her friends but it has been hard for me. We went to a psychoanalyst about the boy. He told us this was a common stage with adolescents but that one of these days some girl would come along and-whammo! (you know how the kids have picked up such phrases from Batman) the whole mixed-up situation will just fade away and be forgotten.

"This psychoanalyst guy is alright I guess, but you and I know, Al, that they don't all of them outgrow it. Suppose Jerry just kept on and on and turned into one of those 'things' you see downtown every once in a while?"

That left things pretty much up in the air, for however it might look apparently it wasn't homosexuality if the participants were young enough. But at what age do they stop being "young enough," for "real homosexuality" to set in?

So, distasteful necessity seemed to be to get an interview with one of those "things" through some connection (rather indirect, of course) with the entertainment world. The interview turned out to be quite an experience for, instead of the one that had been asked for, two of them arrived.

When asked about being homosexual the first one vehemently denied being so. "It simply happened that I was born into a male body, though all my feelings are feminine and, actually, in most ways my body is really very feminine too. Here, let me show you . . ."

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