www.

Carl B. Harding

DEEP are the ROOTS

UDIENCES SQUIRMED in their

seats in 1954 when d'Usseau and Gow's gripping drama of race prejudice hit the Broadway stage. Jolting the conscience of whites and Negroes alike. "Deep are the Roots" portrayed with stark reality how ignorance and fear manifest in people's antagonisms toward one another.

•

play was that deep ARE the roots. Prejudice goes deep in the minds of men. No one is born prejudiced. The child by nature is potentially free to love and treat his fellowman as brothers in creative fellowship. It is the environmental misconditioning of the child, namely by his elders; which distorts his attitudes and

An important emphasis of this warps his emotions in his relationships with humankind.

ON OUR COVER; Artist Mel Betti has illustrated several of the basic concepts which form barriers to mutual acceptance and understanding of the homophile and the world we all live in. These ideas are set forth in the article by Carl B. Harding, "Deep are the Roots!" Author Harding is engaged in research begun. several years ago on causative fac tors which lead to a homosexual orientation. It is hoped that additional articles by him will appear in t. future issues.

A major distortion of thought is caused by ignorance with a leary suspicion of anyone or anything that is different no matter how infinitesimal the differences may be. All too prevalent is the adherence to preconceived superstitions of "differences" which have no basis in fact. When our thinking is guided by the magnification of individual weaknesses and the common tendency to

Judge the whole by some of its parts,

the stereotype is born. The homosexual who distrusts any non-homosexual, as á confidant about his nature is

mattachine REVIEW

equally guilty of the same illogical precept. Basically, most people au more human than we think.

But the most dangerous rootage of human antipathies is fear, not the healthful fears which have for us survival value but the unhealthful fears which spring from insecurities within ourselves. Silently and often unexpectedly they surge up out of our unconsciousness and cause us to be cruel to one another, hampering our happiness. Fear bleeds, the heart of love, and makes us ill. It constricts and holds back whereas love reaches out in joyful, fulfillment of life.

ad-

Self-suffiency or insecurity in dd.. ulthood have their foundation in the emotional climate of the home during the impressionable years of childhood. They are rooted in what the child is taught and how he is permitted or not permitted to express his natural capacity to love.. When there is a thwarting of the child's expression in the give and take of love, there is a breeding of people who in adulthood are apt to react from a compulsion to take out on others the emotional deprivations of their own early years..

•

in men if it were not for faith. Authoritarians would utilize their fear to engender fear in others if they could and they often do. And because their power corrupts, the vicious circle of fear continues to revolve and r has its ramifications and repercussions in every area of our lives. Their behavior may take on organ-. ized scapegoating. The individual or a minority group may be the victim of their whims. Their emotionallycharged philosophy maintains caste systems with the denial of justice and civil rights. Mistreatment of their victims may extend to mental tortures and violent persecutions. Their tyranny reached its most terrible extent. almost unbelieveable for man in the Nazi massacre of the Jews.

The ill effects of prejudice are not alone upon those against whom prejudice is inflicted. Those who hurt others thereby hurt themselves because prejudice and discrimination. further poison the minds of those who would vilify the spiritual worth of

men.

The homosexual has been the victim of interpersonal prejudices and organized anti-campaigns. Here, too, The arrogance of prejudice finds ignorance and fear are the roots, and its most devastating outlet through the most dangerous is fear. Parathe authoritarian personality, the indoxically, fear of one's own latent dividual who feels so desperately inand repressed homosexuality is the secure within himself that he is comcause of much of the anti-homosexpelled to seek security in assumeḍual attitude in our culture `today. self superiority over others rather There are those who use the 'comthan in mutual appreciation, cultiva· pensatory defense mechanism of subtion and good will. Defining strength jecting homosexuals to mockery and in terms of power, the authoritarian humiliation, vehement scorn and per seeks to engulf others as his suborsecution, to unconscionaly shield an dinates to fill the gnawing emptiness element of the same inclination withhe feels within. in themselves. Their reactionary impulse not only exhibits a failure to understand the inadequate parentchild relationship in the formative years which usually causes homosexual development, but also a refusal to recognize the causes of their own

...

But the surface satisfaction found in dominating others is a false security. Those who depreciate others are disatisfied with themselves. Theirs is the antithesis of creativity. Their attitudes would stifle the best

•