angents

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TANGENTS is one of America's most interesting "open forums" for the reporting of events and the expression of individual viewpoints on the subject of sexual orientation and behavior. But it depends on YOU, the reader, for clippings, reports and letters which can be used for its columns. KEEP THEM COMING to 2256 Venice Boulevard by consulting your local news sources regularly, being sure to include NAME and DATE of publication with each clipping. UNDATED, UNIDENTIFIED CLIPPINGS MUST BE DISCARDED.

GOVERNMENT SNOOPING TO MOUNT?

Reports continue to indicate that, under the guise of "psychological research," the U.S. Government is extending its invasions of privacy from adults to schoolchildren. As might have been expected, these practices were put into effect immediately upon the granting of Federal subsidies to public schools, and they should be a clear warning of Government intentions, as "Big Brother" increases his clutch upon the American citizen. In this instance, school children have been asked "whether they are strongly attracted to members of their own sex, whether they indulge in unusual sexual practices, and what they think of their parents." The tenor of such question does more than merely suggest that the Dept. of H.E.&W. has its own share of

frustrated homosexuals. One Congressman commented that some such tests "may be profoundly disturbing to schoolchildren.'

Shock waves of confusion concerning "Big Brother's" intentions for adults also swept the country following the U.S. Supreme Court's smashing refusal on March 21 to set aside the criminal convictions of publishers Ralph Ginzburg and Edward Mishkin, who in lower courts had been convicted on various counts charging obscenity. Both men now face prison sentences of five and three years respectively, also five-figure fines.

At the same time the Court overturned the ban imposed in Massachusetts against selling "Fanny Hill," a work for two centuries widely deemed not fit for public sale by reason of its sheer pornographic contents.