Answers Von Hoffman

I AM WRITING in regard to the March 17 column, "Paar Made Gays Look Good," by Nicholas Von Hoffman.

It is very commendable that Von Hoffnan should defend homosexual civil liberties in spite of his apparent belief that homosexuality is a very ugly human phenomenon. However, we who are involved in gay liberation feel that such an attitude is not one that is likely to bring an end to homosexual oppression. An aversion to homosexuality, we believe, is a response acquired in a rigid, sex-negating society, and is not simply an instinctive reaction of a healthy, normal psyche to an ugly, disturbed psyche.

The liberationists referred to 10% of the U.S. total population as having a strong homosexual element, not 20% as stated by Von Hoffman. He says the methodology of the Kinsey studies was "conclusively shot down years ago." Gay liberation groups realize that it is virtually impossible to gain an accurate measure of the incidence of homosexual behavior in the United States. "Homosexual" is properly used as an adjective and not a noun. Homosexuality can occur in any form from an occasional impulse to a dominant aspect of one's life. A simple counting of heads is not possible. However, Kinsey's data unfortunately remain the best presently available, and i would invite Von Hoffman to cite a study that is more worthy of being quoted by gay liberation groups.

The proposition that the situation of gays is exactly like that of blacks was not made. The situations of gays and blacks have similarities and differences. Neither is it true that homosexual behavior is necessarily a deliberate choice. My own homosexual orientation has existed since puberty, and I identified it only after hearing a description of homosexuality. Von Hoffman reveals an ignorance of the nature of homo sexuality in making a generalization from one of the gays who was heterosexual for many years.

It is unfortunate that Von Hoffman cannot see into the movement around him beyond the "queenish rock groups." "militant gays stamping into his living room" and a "coying camp of Bette Midler admirers."

DANIEL D-S. ROSS

Secretary, Cleveland Gay

Activist Alliance,

2281 Murray Hill Road, Apt. 1.

Cleveland