AWARDS of merit from MATTACHINE

During the past four years, eight Awards of Merit have been presented by the Mattachine Society to individuals and organizations for outstanding service in the fields of education, research and social service on the sex variation subject.

In the same period, a number of special awards have been made. They include "Member of the Year" designation and honorary memberships.

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The Moral Welfare Council of the Church of England, London, the American Law Institute, Philadelphia, and Dr. Robert Lindner, Baltimore (posthumously), received awards of merit at the 3rd Annual Convention in 1956. Member of the Year was D. 'S. Lucas, business manager of the Review.

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Recipient of the Member of the Year designation in 1955 was Hal Call, publications director and editor of the Review. honorary membership was voted for James (Barr) Fugate and Ken Burns, Chairman of the Society.

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In 1954, awards of merit were presented to Dr. Alfred C.. Kinsey of the Institute for Sex Research, University of Indiana, Bloomington, and Le Circle (Der Kreis), homophile magazine now in it's 20th year of publication, at Zurich, Switzerland.

At the Society's organizational convention in 1953, honor awards were made to One, Inc. (One magazine), Los Angeles; the George W. Henry Foundation, New York, and the International Committee for Sexual Equality, Amsterdam, Holland. D. C. Olson,

secretary of the Society, was named Member of the Year.

Each award certificate is lithographed on parchment paper, inscribed with the name of the recipient, and officially signed and sealed by the organization.

All chapters of the Mattachine Society are officially chartered by a vote of members and delegates at the General (Continued on page 40)

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mattachine REVIEW

Dr. Alfred KINSEY

toward a clarification of HOMOSEXUAL TERMINOLOGY

From SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE; Kinsey, Pomeroy and Martin; Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1948. Pp. 612-ff

FOR

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OR NEARLY a century the term homosexual in connection with human behavior has been applied to sexual relations, either overt or psychic, between individuals of the same sex. Derived from the Greek root homo rather than from the Latin word for man, the term emphasizes the sameness of the two individuals who are involved in a sexual relation. The word is, of course, patterned after and intended to represent the antithesis of the word heterosexual, which applies to a relation between individuals of different

sexes.

The term homosexual has had an endless list of synonyms in the technical vocabularies and a still greater list in the vernaculars. The terms homogenic love, contrasexuality. homoerotism, similisexualism, uran-

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ism and others have been used in English. The terms sexual inversion, intersexuality, transexuality, the third sex, psychosexual hermaphroditism, and others have been applied not merely to designate the nature of the partner involved in the sexual relation, but to emphasize the general opinion that individuals engaging in homosexual activity are neither male nor female, but persons of mixed sex. These latter terms are, however, most unfortunate, for they provide an interpretation in canticipation of any sufficient demons.ration of the fact, and consequently they prejudice investigations of the nature and origin of homosexual activity.

The term Lesbian, referring to such female homosexual relations as were immortalized in the poetry of Sappho of the Greek Isle of Lesbos, has gained considerable usage within recent years, particularly in some of the larger Eastern cities where the existence of female homosexu-

The article which appears here is reprinted from SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE, by Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy and Clyde E. Martin. Material for the article was selected by Donal Norton, and is published by permission of Dr. Kinsey and the publishers of the book, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia.

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