PETITION TO THE

PRESIDENT OF THE

UNITED STATES

Submitted by William Kern, Jr. who is currently confined in Jackson (Michigan) Prison, having been charged with committing gross indecency and sodomy.

Precisely why persons seek and indulge in homosexual relations seems to be essentially unknown. The layman can ascertain that homosexuality is a basic drive, a personality trait, whether it be congenital or acquired, or possibly both, and that it exists, as a rule, quite beyond the choice of those in whom it resides. The homosexual has been a significant part of human sexual activities ever since the dawn of history, primarily because it is an expression of capacities that are basic in the human animal.

HOW MANY HOMOSEXUALS?

Despite studies and investigations, however scientifically conducted, there is no way of ascertaining how many persons participate in homosexual acts during their lives. It is doubtful whether precise figures, even if known, could or should have any effect upon the criminal laws in this area.

Donald Webster Cory, writing subjectively about homosexuality, refers to rather vaguely constructed incidence

of homosexuality ranging from one to ten percent of the population. Another source estimates that one out of every six American males are homosexual. In the Kinsey Report, study indicated that 37% of the male population has some homosexual experience between adolescence and old age. This is more than one male in every three of the persons that one may meet as he walks along a city street. Among the males that remain single until the age of 35, almost exactly 50% have homosexual experience between adolescence and that age. In every case given an estimate, the results are that homosexuals are thought to exist in large numbers. True, that the percentage arrived at may be only one or two percent of the population, but when this is transfered into numbers of persons, it reaches into the millions. The fact remains that when one speaks of homosexuals, one is speaking of one of America's largest minority groups, second to the Negro.