READERS write

Review Editor: One of the things I like about the Mattachine Review is that you recognize that it is not necessary to tell homosexuals themselves that laws should be changed, and that they as a group are being persecuted in some ways. Instead, and far more important, you have chosen to present facts about sex variation in such a manner that your publication can be passed on to anyone to read, as a basis, at least, for creating a mutual understanding of the homosexual and his problems. --Mr. H. F., California

Review Editor: Allow me to express deep appreciation for the great encouragement I have received from your magazine, sent to me by a friend. You have no idea how efforts you are putting forth are helping those of us who are isolated and feel like we are alone in a hostile society. I believe that you are heralds of a new day for many people. Like all reformers, you have great courage and fortitude. Your labors are already bearing fruit in creating an optimistic, united outlook. Many of us, crushed by our environment, are gaining hope once more. Eventually society, conservative and hesitant, shall give us a fair hearing as we press our claims at the bar of justice. --Mr. K. D. M., Idaho

Review Editor: Today I got the second issue from a newsstand --I have not seen the first. I just read your history-I had heard of (the Mattachine Society's) existence a year ago, and from a heterosexual! But you've existed since 1950...Why did you not tell us? When I think of the thousands like myself who roam the streets and taverns in search of companionship! The only thing I could find in print was an article in Confidential. Please send me the Review. --Miss K. S., California

Review Editor: Thanks for sending me a specimen copy of the January-February issue of the Mattachine Review. I have now decided to subscribe for a year. I am therefore sending you through the post by surface mail an international money order of $3.50. --Mr. E. B., Paris, France

Review Editor: With congratulations for producing a magazine that does full justice to your aims and principles, I wish to voice a minor objection to a small matter: James Barr's article, "Under Honorable Conditions" (third issue)was excellent. However, at one point not crucial to the development of his story, he yielded to a deplorable generalization, throwing around words like "neo-fascist," saying, "....as of today American concentration camps are not yet formally open for business, though undoubtedly their blueprints are already in an advanced state. That sort of intemperate language, even though coming from one who has gone through what Mr. Barr remattachine REVIEW

lates, can easily be open to association with similar attacks heard from sources not at all congenial to Mattachine's professed point of view. I do not think Mr. Barr is a communist. or a communist sympathizer. If he was he wouldn't be writing in the Review. His choice of political invective, however, is unfortunately close enough to the mumbo-jumbo of the Daily Worker to lay him open to attack by implied guilt of associa tion. If there is ignorance, prejudice, violence and hatemongering in America, and I know there is, it is with direct exposure and reason rather than over-emotional invective that we must fight them. Those things are not American and we must fight them as Americans. When we yield, however, to sneering characterizations of America's course as "fascistic," we are After all, we are among the playing into communist hands. After all, majority in everything except a certain social aspect, and we will stand with that majority in any showdown with America's --Mr. P. R., Texas enemies.

Review Editor: My, what a relief to read your third issue after having read the article by. "Anonymous" called "A Mother's Ordeal with Homosexuality" in the June issue of Pageant. This article is another of the obvious attempts to inflame public And opinion against the homosexual people of this country. look how they do it! They invariably resort to stories about. minors, portraying the older homosexual as the villain and a cunning criminal of the robber-burglar type. The article in Pageant had the most exaggerated, unrealistic illustrations conceivable! There is an increasing number of magazines of the sensational type which will print anything to attract at It is indeed, high time that tention and make a sale.

have a magazine such as the Review to counteract some of this foolishness. --Mr. B. H., Illinois

Review Editor: I have been a One Magazine subscriber for over a year, and heard that you were contemplating a magazine, but it was only after I read Hush-Hush that I learned that you have already printed, beginning in January, a magazine. would like to be a subscriber.

--Mr. L. K., Delaware

Review Editor: I am grateful to have affiliation with a group I believe that such an association can like the Mattachine. prove beneficial to all of us.

--Mr. E. L. H., California

Review Editor: I never liked the word homosexual because, according to Stekel, it is a neurosis, i.e., an asocial aspiration that has not been fully sublimated. Can 15 million men be unadjusted? --Mr. P. T., Massachusetts

Review Editor: I have received the second issue and I like the magazine. It is, in my opinion, a timely and much needed publication. I'll be looking forward to forthcoming issues.

--Mr. B. M., Nebraska

Review Editor: Thank you for your recent copy--it is interesting to me although I get along excellently with heterosexuals..