Because I am a homosexual woman; MUST I BE DIFFERENT?

by Mrs. A. H. Sherman

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No, says the author of the follow-

ing article; she has her own life to

live. Mrs. Sherman is married to a homosexual man. She ranks high, in her profession. Her marriage, she admits, was one of social convenience, not unlike uncounted hundreds of such relationships in our culture today. But out of it has come many benefits, not the least important, a genuine affection for and companionship with her husband!"

IT'S T'S HARD to remember exactly what my problem was at the time. I do remember the cool dusk, the full moon lighting the corn field I slowly trudged through, and that I came to a halt there with a wonderful new thought in mind. I knew this to be the gleaning of a truth which was to stand me in good stead, and I understood in one moment that I was not different from thausands of other humans. The same sadness and jby I felt, they too experienced.'. The same desires, the same strengths and weaknesses they too knew. They needed the same security I sought, had dreams like mine. It was then I became more whole and a part of a whole which I'so desparately needed, I was no longer alone, unique, just an adolescent., For I knew that because I would seek the way to fulfill my life, so would they-here was a common ground I shared.

This I have shared and have been sharing for several years since. Oh, yes-I must admit all has not been

with the surging glow and inspiration I first felt that night long ago. Yet, the thing I understood so thoroughly then is still with me as clearly.

And what have been the ways of fulfillment? An interest in the constructive things of life, busy doing with the hands, using the mind, creating, playing, and of course living. This is the way it went at first-a good start. Not very different from the endeavours of any vital. human being.

Sooner or later, however, there were bound to be interruptions in the strivings. That's the way of it-now I was fully aware of the usual problems that beset people-besides a few more if one had preferences that a large bulk of society has closed it's mind to. I emerged from the cocoon into a life of complexity with individuals seeking more than the usual answers. I found myself in the whirlpool of despair, fear and 'dissipation people can easily succumb to. For all the high-minded desires and

aims there seemed to be a frantic search in so many, a blatant flaunting in others, a resigned stupor for more; martyrdom of a sort-creating reasons for a cause if there were none, the old gall and bitterness, colored with insincerity, and promiscuity as a defense.

One knows surely when the mouth of destruction is drawing one in. Here and there were a few people with some forms of stability and one could see favorable results in those who lived it.

'I knew when I hit bottom I had two choices: One, to stay there; the other, to kick hard and come up.

A woman is a woman and a man is a man for all of that which we possess.

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ance by the majority of our fellowmen in order to be of any use to them or to ourselves. Only in this way can we gradually hope to have him gain an understanding of the many possible differences in people. The process of education is a slow one, it must be carefully gauged carefully planned and executed and can be carried out only by individuals who are more wholesomely adjusted' to their own particular lives. We have strength in this for in wanting others to become broader, we become broader ourselves.

As a woman you would see, I do not wish to be any more conspicuous than many ordinarily are. As a woman you would meet, I do not wish to be any more unusual than a relatively intelligent well-adjusted person. It is not a necessity to broadcast in neon lights one's sex preference-actually few ask för that, yet we, because we are top often in turmoil with ourselves, do just that. So I say, let us all discard the frantic search and get busy with the We all need a degree of acceptthings we can do well.

It was not easy to hold back thoughts, feeling and actions from the general pattern, society has set and yet the pressure of the thought of sheer ruin 'and utter destruction as a valuable unit of society overwhelmed the necessity for the want of other open expressions.

How to Be a Misfit.....

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TWELVE MISTAKES

IN LIFE.

Reprinted from "The Bulletin," published by Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company

1. To attempt to set up your own standard of right and wrong.

2. To try to measure the enjoyment of others by your own.

3. To expect uniformity of opinions in the world,

4. To fail to make allowance for experience.

5. Not to yield in unimportant trifles. 6. To look for perfection in our own .actions.

7. To worry ourselves and others about what cannot be remedied.

8. Not to help everybody wherever and whenever we can.

9. To consider anything impossible that we cannot ourselves perform.

10. To believe only what our finite minds can grasp.

11. Not to make allowances for the weaknesses of others.,

12. To estimate by some outside quality when it is that within which makes

the man:

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