•

per se cannot be numbered within this group of the socially destructive. The homosexual then is being rejected basically because he is different. Over and above any humanitarian or ethical considerations that in themselves would outlaw the rejection of any human being on the grounds simply of his being different, there is the question of the price the price of rejection. How high is the price? And how is it being paid off in terms of both daily and long range cultural and social loss?

One of the most pertinent considerations to be examined in computing the loss to society produced by discrimination is the loss in the productivity of the member of the discriminated minority. At the one extreme there is the cost of mental illness, alcoholism and severe and disabling neuroses. Certainly, all of these conditions can be precipitated, if not actually caused by a sense of being outcast. And ranging down, we clearly see a wide spectrum of other losses-individuals functioning far below their native and educational levels in both their occupations and their avocations. And discrimination causes disruptions in the development of meaningful interpersonal relations that weaken the entire fabric of human relations which make up society itself.

Another important factor to be considered is the discouraging effect, on individuals with special talents, of the frequent ridicule heaped on whole areas of the arts. Undoubtedly many gifted individuals turn away from the professional expression of their art interests because of the not unwarranted fears of parents, teachers and the individuals themselves that they will be laying themselves open, by implication, to the charge of being part of the rejected homosex ual minority. And this may be a sufficiently deterring fear to lose to the arts, to the crafts, to music and the dance field numbers of gifted and potentially great producers.

•

In the process of stereotyping and then rejecting any group within society, society frequently fails completely to concern itself with understanding the causes, implications and cure, of the condition found within the group. Probably nowhere has this been more clearly demonstrated than in the, area of sexual deviation. Dozens of vitally important questions pertaining to psycho-sexual development and the influence of parental relations on the development of homosexuality have never been adequately studied. There is some work to be found in detailed and frequently exceedingly esoteric psycho-analytical case studies but any really scientific factual study is lacking. Not only is there an abscence of scientific, curiosity but. even when it exists, a reliable statistical sample of subjects is frequently impossible to come by. As is so often noted, most of the studies of the social and personal histories of homosexuals have been conducted in prisons and institutions hardly a place to find data pertaining to the largest number of members of the group. The same substitution of persecution for scientific study pertains to the

mattachine REVIEW

EDUCATIONAL

GIFT

SUGGESTIONS

Mattachine Review makes

an ideal gift at Christmas

or any time of the year!

Single Copies

of available Back Issues, cack

Annual Subscription Complete Sets, per yr.

Bound Volumes, ea.

in Caltt Vela. 1955-56-57 All 3 for $20

.50

4.00

5.00

7.00

etails and resumé

contents on pages ellowing