men decided asperity, resistence and love of disputation one has to regard these signs of resistance as defense symptoms erected against affection for the same sex. I would even go so far as to regard the barbarous duels of the German students as similarly distorted proofs of affection towards members of their own sex .

It seems to me that any emotion powerful and passionate enough to require a duel to fend it off is something of greater insensity than mere "affection". Nevertheless, it is clear that the alternative to homosexuality in many cases is no mere indifference to one's fellow man but, on the contrary, an aggressive, hostile attitude. Its religious meaning is to take sides with devil against God, who is Truth and Love. And in purely secular ferms, how can one fail to see the grave moral and sociological problem this situation presents? How much better it would have been, how much healthier it would have been, if D. H. Lawrence's "Prussian Officer" had understood his own emotions, had accepted his homosexuality, and had attempted to put it to creative use! What Lawrence expresses in a particularized form, Alex Comfort states as a general proposition in AUTHORITY AND DELINQUENCY IN THE MODERN STATE: "The type of sadism which features in the discussion of political and military atrocities is an outgrowth of this: the desire to inflict suffering as a means to, or a substitue for, normal sexual and socio-sexual relationships." (I doubt that Comfort would include homosexuality within the bounds of normality, however.)

18

In a note to DEMOCRATIC VISTAS Walt Whitman wrote: "It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship, (the adhesive love, at least rivaling the amative love hitherto possesing imaginative literature, if not going beyond it) that I look for the countrabalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American democracy, and for the spiritualization thereof. Many will say it is a dream, and will not follow my inferences: but I confidently expect a time when there will not be seen, running like a half-hid warp through all the myriad audible and visible wordly interests of America, threads of manly friendship, fun and loving, pure and sweet, strong and life-long, carried to degrees hitherto unknown-not only giving tone to individual character, and making it unprecedentedly emotional, muscular, heroic, and refined, but having the deepest relations to general politics. I say democracy infers such loving comradeship, as, its most inevitable twin and counterpart, without which it will be incomplete, in vain, and incapable of perpetuating itself." In his introduction to THE COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE OF WALT WHITMAN the critic Malcolm Cowley makes it clear that Whitman was writing in this passage about homosexual love.

All critics have considered this idea preposterous nonsense. Perhaps it is! On the other hand in a context of contemporary knowledge it no longer sounds quite as preposterous as it once did. Even if a highly improbable development, it at least remains a psychological possibility for man.

mattachine REVIEW

homosexuals examine

their SENSE OF VALUES

WHAT DO HOMOSEXUALS think

of themselves and their position?

Not all of their serious discussions can be termed self-pity, because often these discussions are penetrating and revealing.

The following article is taken from notes made after a discussion group of the original Mattachine Foundation, held in September 1951. two years before the Mattachine idea progressed from a secret organization to a democratic society.

The topic in this case was "Sense of Value." Except for the date it might have been presented only a month ago at some other regular public discussion group, since this is a topic typical of these meetings. The language used in this discussion was centered largely around the homosexual male. But corresponding principles usually would apply also to the female invert,

Discussion group meetings are held monthly in each principal area on a chapter or area council level under Mattachine Society sponsorship. They serve an important function of the organization as they bring seriously interested men and women together to hear a professional speaker or discussion group leader conduct a pooling of ideas and opinions on some aspect of the homosexual subject.

By Wes Knight

A HETEROSEXUAL FAMILY'S sense

of value is influenced by the effect of its decisions upon itself. This is not true with homosexuals. Their ability to develop an adequate sense of value is hampered because of little opportunity and equally little responsibility. The heterosexual has a basic primary responsibility-the family, which necessitates an adequate sense of values. The homosexual has no such "natural" pattern in which to fall. The family is an established vehicle for the outlet of heterosexuals. Homosexuals, except many bisexuals, are denied this.

Only those who are not "obvious", who can pass for "normal", find themselves acceptable and therefore able to participate in the usual affairs of society. A great many homosexuals find assimilation inconvenient, unnecessary, or impossible. Thus the opportunity to develop a well-rounded sense of value is denied this mass of individuals. The result is that in seeking a solution, these people turn within themselves and temper a sense of value peculiar to their own, and usually incorporating distortion and vindictiveness.

In everyday situations the homosexual finds that often he is expected to be on intimate terms with a particular group, such as business associates. He must adopt a double 19