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behave badly.

If the laws against homosexual behavior as such were strictly enforced, one-half of the male population would land in jail, as Kinsey has shown. Therefore, enforcement is highly selective, and only relatively few individuals pay the penalty, bore for their bad luck or carelessness than for their sexual activities.

Here I would like to tell an incident. I can vouch for its truth. Not many years ago, I knew a doctor who had escaped the persecutions of the Nazis in Germany and had made a splendid success as a urologist in this country.

He was a homophile. In his middle fifties, he was a rather lonely, introverted person. One evening, in a comfort station, he was accosted by a young and attractive man who made a suggestion for an immediate intimacy. The doctor accepted. Then the young man purned out to be a detective, arrested him and promptly took him to night court.

Following his attorney's (unfortunate) advice, the doctor made a plea of guilty and paid a $50 fine. That was supposed to be the easiest way to end the predicament. However, a week or two later, a notice appeared in the official publication of the respective County Medical Society, stating that Doctor So-and-So had been found guilty of an act involving "moral turpitude." That same evening the doctor killed himself.

All my efforts to place responsibility for this utterly unnecessary publicity were fucile. I encountered nothing but pious regrets and buck-passing.

When it comes to sex offenses and bomosexuality, the law bas to accept an indictment by science. But it is common decency and ethics that bave to indict some law enforcement methods, and also those attitudes taken by public and press that lack fair ness and tolerance. The medical profession must sometimes

sbare the blame, as in the instance bere related.

Sometimes I have been wondering whether the reason why it is so difficult to have laws against male homosexuality revised, 1. may be due to the fact that a homosexual relationship constitutes an unfailing method of birth control. Those who are against birth control would be therefore strongly against homosexuality too and may even ay to force the homosexual into marriage and parenthood.

In spite of all this criticism of the existing law, far be it from me to suggest that the law should be deliberately broken or even "winked at." I want to make that quite clear. As long as a law mattachine REVIEW

exists it should be obeyed. But there can be no objection to ef forts that are meant to educate the public. It is public opinion and the public press that stand behind lawmakers and law enforcement officers. The attitude of the public has to change frst before a revision of laws is possible.

Therefore the individual behavior of the homosexual is so important. The hostility that is being encountered is rarely directed against a masculine-appearing, male-acting homosexual. It is the effeminate, "swishing" type that grates and draws the fire.

The homosexual wants acceptance, but acceptance can replace rejection only very gradually. It can not come overnight. The individual homophile can help a lot toward a final, more satisfactory solution of the problem.

Unfortunately, when it comes to sex the public at large still lives in the same twilight of superstition, prejudice and ignorance in which our present sex laws were conceived many years ago. The Mattachine Society has made a splendid start to replace twilight by light, superstition by science, and ignorance· by knowledge.

The fight for enlightenment is an uphill one most everywhere. It is especially steep and dangerous when in certain localities. and at certain times sex laws are enforced with fanaticism instead of tolerance, wisdom and a bit of common sense. On those occasions the persecution of "sin" is likely to assume greater importance than, for instance, the prevention and prosecution of crimes. I don't think you have to look very far to find an example for a situation like that.

The concluding half of Dr. Benjamin's paper will appear in the May issue of the REVIEW. In it he will discuss the medical and endocrine factors Involved In homosexuality, and amplify his Ideas about the theories of "Intersexuality." REVIEW readers may be interested to know that an abridgment of Dr. Benjamin's paper, being presented here in full, appeared in the current (April) Issue of SEXOLOGY magazine.

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