category. She points up the need for helping emotionally disturbed youngsters during the critical adolescent years, and also levels a blast of criticism at our medieval sex laws. "Society fails to employ what's known," she writes, "to differentiate our treatment of those who haven't and aren't going to harm anybody, like some practicing homosexuals, from those who are habitual minor offenders, and these in turn, from disturbed, psychotic, or psychopathic characters. For the first two classes, we need to discover the best and quickest ways to integrate them successfully into the community as good citizens, instead of having to endure tragic, wasted lives. Thereby, the public would be saved the costs of repeated apprehension, criminal investigation, and unsuitable incarceration." In noting the inequities in the enforcement of certain sex laws, she quotes Dr. Stephen C. Mason, of the Michigan State Medical Society. Dr. Mason describes two neighboring communities near Ann Arbor. "In one,," he says, "the judge is biased, rigid, unapproachable, and very punitive in dealing with these cases. The prosecutor is weak and afraid to stand up to the judge, who periodically initiates campaigns to 'clear out the homosexuals. In the other, the personality problem is studied, with psychiatric help, and the prosecutor handles each case on its merits. "Many of these cases," Dr. Mason goes on to say, "and especially first offenders, never get into court, and the emphasis is always kept on the rehabilitation of the individual, rather than his punishment."

NOW WHO'S SEDUCING WHOM?

According to the S.F. CHRONICLE for 2/25, San Francisco's police de-

partment has admitted defeat in the task of protecting both adult and juvenile vistors to the "Tenderloin" district from the advances of predatory teenagers out to "sell their bodies." Current conditions there were originally reported by investigators for the Glide Foundation, who "estimated that about 300 males from 12 to 25 years of age engage in prostitution in the area," and that "females as young as 14 also solicit sex from women as well as men. In general, homosexual behavior is described as "most dominant," with the clientele for the pros (and probably some of the pros themselves) being partly drawn from "thousands of very young persons who throng into the area each weekend." Illicit drug traffic is reported as being closely involved with this appalling situation, with "ten chemicals," including the hallucinogen, "LSD", in ready supply.

In contrast with police vicesquad tactics, Glide Foundation workers use an empathetic approach to these footloose and unfortunate young persons, with the goal of improving their self-image, and of encouraging them to find some worth-while identity in the adult community. (See material on San Francisco's Council on Religion and the Homosexual, ONE Magazine, Oct., '65)

In relation to S.F.'s immediate problem, both Catholic and Protestant clergy are said to be working toward the establishment of an antipoverty district which would include the Tenderloin. Meanwhile, mature examples of adult leadership, dignity, and Christian charity continue to be the primary need, and Bay Area religious groups deserve all possible support and encouragement in the work which they have already begun so well.

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