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Free choice plays no

role with homosexuals

Dear Dr. Menninger:

Kansas has come into the limelight lately in regards to the homosexual problem with Anita Bryant's crusade against them that results in a pie-inthe-face deal in Wichita and her appearance in Liberal.

We all admire Anita and are at a loss as to what we can do to help.

First, what is a homosexual, and why are they that way? When and how did they manage to get on this (surely) wrong track that has all but ruined their lives?

We've tried to learn from TV programs and literature. One fact seems

i to be that it is not hereditary. All right, then, what is the basis of becoming a homosexual? Can you help us through your column.?

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What goes wrong when they reach the place where they prefer another man to their wife and the mother of their children, as was depicted on "60 "Minutes" lately?

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Everyone knows this condition isn't new, as God admonished against it as early as Leviticus 18:22. We think Anita needs our help! Mrs. G.R., Kansas.

Dear Mrs. G.R..

Homosexual is the label given to one who seeks primary sexual gratification from another person of the same sex. This behavior evokes strong negative feelings in a majority of people, and that makes it difficult to discuss the subject rationally and dispassionately.

While the practice is reprehensible

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to many, Kinsey's sexuality studies suggest that a sizable prportion of the population has had at least one overt homosexual experience 37% of all men, 13% of all women.

Four percent of the men Kinsey studied were solely homosexual in their orientation after adolescence; other surveys have come up with comparable figures. The incidence of predomi-

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Dr.

Walt Menninger

sumption that pathological parentchild relations are either necessary or sufficient antecedents or determinants of adult homosexuality."

She does acknowledge, however, that "some forms of familial pathology to be associated with increased appear vulnerability of some individuals to homosexual development."

However the orientation develops,

'Why are they that way? There is no simple answer to that question.'

nantly homosexual women is believed to be somewhat less than for men.

Why are they that way? There is no simple answer to that question, and we're still searching for explanations. You are correct that it is not hereditary, nor are there any clear hormonal, biochemical or chromosomal differences that distinguish homosexually oriented persons from heterosexual.

Some psychoanalysts believe that the cause lies in the developmental experiences of early childhood when the young child encounters the first hetero (opposite) and homo (same) sexual figures in life his parents.

Dr. Evelyn Hooker, chairperson of a 1972 National Institute of Mental Health Task Force on Homosexuality, concluded that "the evidence from many studies does not support the as-

nearly all mental health professionals, and the homosexual persons themselves, acknowledge that this is not the result of some conscious free choice.

Rather, emotional and psychological forces within the person lead him or her to experience a primary interest and sexual arousal from another person of the same sex, much in the same way that most people automatically experience such arousal from a person of the opposite sex.

In other respects, the person who is homosexually oriented may show little difference from you and me. Dr. Hooker's studies found careful and objective psychological testing could not differentiate well-adjusted homosexuals in a community from well-adjusted heterosexuals in the same community.