selves need enlightenment to check what is termed objectionable overt behavior [which is after all a manisfestation of

REFORMERS

extreme frustration]. All so can be

ciety needs accurate. information about the subject to effect a fair and just understanding of the homophile. Each group, then, needs to understand the other, and thereby erase barriers to integration and acceptance.

can be cruel

By Luther Allen

(Writer of the following criticism is a subcriber from Maryland. He took issue with statements made by Frederick Kidder in a book review which appeared in the first issue of the REVIEW. Along with the welcome praise, the REVIEW is pleased to present Allen's criticism for all to read)

The Mattachine Society wishes to accomplish its mission in a responsible and constructive manner. As stated in its aims and principles, the Mattachine program is one REVIEW EDITOR: Congratulations which respects "sanctity of of on your thoroughly good first issue home, church and state," and of the Mattachine Review. It is a it has never entertained any idea that the organization would be exclusively for homo, sc.xuals. "Evolution, not revo lution" is the theme of the manner in which the Society hopes to accomplish its aims. Seeking integration of the sex variant as a responsible, productive and acceptable citizen in his community is an important thing to accomplish.

The wonders of civilization today were problems yesterday. Likewise, through research and education, groups such as the Mattachine Socie ty today can make important contributions in solving emotional and social problems of mankind for tomorrow. That's why I chose to join the effort.

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matter of some pride to me to be one of your original subscribers, although I am not one to go overboard for "causes" and I have always found it difficult to bring myself to applaud a poor effort only because I think the cause is good. But no such difficulty today! Your review is interesting from cover to co-

Whoever does your make-up deserves congratulations for a professional job too.

In the entire first issue there is but one criticism I can make: in the review of SEX AND MORALITY by Abram Kardiner, your writer says,

the complacent, asocial variant who often takes refuge in a supposed biological basis for his deviation is confronted with the fact that deviation is largely the result of social and developmental forces which can be dealt with, if there is sufficient motivation, in a way in which biological factors could not be controlled. If the variant rejects modern knowledge and is unhappy or antisocial, it is pretty largely his own fault." That statement is, I think,

mattachine REVIEW

the one intolerant note in your magazine. As to whether or not there may be a biological basis to homosexuality, are you quite sure, that all the returns are in? As to "modern knowledge" concerning homosexuality it is my impression that the experts are pretty much at sixes and sevens, the best of them healthily aware of the uncertainty and inconclusiveness of most of the work which has been done in this field. Far be it from me to take an obscurantist view, but the question arises, "Just which brand of modern knowledge? Whose particular version of modern knowledge?" Next, in the passage which I have quoted, I must object to the naive assumption that, because homosexuality may not have a biological base, because it may be the result of environmental conditioning, it is therefore accessible to change. Often, through no fault of the individual, the early experiences which led to the development of the homosexual pattern have so deeply twisted and gnarled him it is traqically impossible for him materially to change. In your reviewer's words I hear the harsh tones of the reformer -and reformers can be very cruel men, due to a false simplicity of outlook and an excess of zeal. I think of Andre Gide's wise words ... "Laissez a chacun le soin de sa vie."

The answer for every homosexual lies in his own breast, not in the clinics. What goes by the modern label of homosexuality is profound human emotion, it is kinds of living human experience. The scientists know the words, some of them, but they don't know the music. If Walt Whitman were alive today and were interviewed by Dr. Kinsey, the good doctor's record card would not be Song of Myself. And furthermore, there is greater truth in Song of Myself than in all the psychiatric case histories ever published.

When psychotherapy attempts to be more than just the key to free the poetry in man, then it becomes another tyranny.

If you care to print my letter, and I hope you do because I believe urgently in what I have written here, I would be proud to have my full name appear in your pages and equally proud to see my name signed to what has turned out to be a little declaration of faith.

May your venture prosper and thrive.

PROSECUTORS ARE CAUTIONED TO HALT ILLEGAL ARRESTS "There can be no excuse in a democratic society for illegal activity of police," stated a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, to more than 100 state, fed-

eral and local officials at an institute for prosecuting attorneys not long ago. He didn't specify any particular charges, but he did urge a change of laws governing arrests in order to avoid judicial and public criticism for violation of civil rights.

The professor, Edward L. Barrett, Jr., said his proposal to ask the Califomnia Legislature to change the law of arrest came alter an analysis of Supreme Court decisions involving use of dictagraphs by police, coercion in obtaining confessions, and a Southern California case in which harcotics taken from a man by stomach pump were used as evidence against him.

The U. S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of California in recent decisions have used such phrases as the following, Barrett noted:

"... This is conduct that shocks the conscience.... that an officer of the law would break and enter a home and conceal an instrument is unbelievable... “and” We can assume the confession was a result of terror." 31