Being Different

Seems To Be

Neglected Art

When I was 11, my parents

sent me to a summer camp run along semi-military lines. Part of each camper's uniform was supposed to be a

Boy Scout hat,

low-crowned, The accompanying wide brim

med, to be worn every afternoon when we lined up for formal inspection.

article was written

by Arthur Gordon'

for the Hollywood Citizen-News, in

a series of Lenten

But my par ents, through some catastrophic oversight, sent me off instead with one of those Army campaign hats, vintage of 1917. It was wide-brimmed, all right: when I put it on, I was practically in total darkness. As for the crown, it seemed to rise half a mile straight in the : air.

messages for 1959.

Whenever I wore this hat, instead of being inconspicuous and somewhat homesick little boy, I became a freak.

Or so I thought. Looking back now, across more than 30 years, I can smile at the memory. But believe me, it was no joke at the time. I was

miserable

utterly, abjectly miserable. Why? Because I was different, different from the others, different from the crowd.

INTO LATER LIFE There must be few of us who cannot recall from.such childhood episode and fewer still who do not carry some of this deep-rooted fear into adult life.

But if we value leadership, if we prize achievement, if we are, concerned with our own painful struggle toward maturity, we have to learn to overcome this childish concern.

The rewards of differentness are easy enough to see.. No matter what field you choosescience, entertainment, law, education, the business world -the demand is for individuals, whose performance is above average and therefore different. At any dinner party, the liveliest and most attrac tive, guest is the one whose ideas and observations are stimulating because they are different.

I have no doubt that a man's earning power parallels almost exactly his capacity to produce new ideas, to show unusual (Continued on page 28)

mattackine REVIEW

READERS write

REVIEW EDITOR: A young man asked me to inquire whether you might be able to advise him conceming the military service and the draft. If he were to tell the draft board he was homosexual to avoid later complications in service would this infor mation ever under any circumstances be made available to anyone such as police, legislative Investigating groups, and the like, wherein his future as a teacher would be endangered? Or would it be better for him to go into the service (such as the army) and contact a psychiatrist? I have seen in print the navy's view that`a psychiatrist's ethics are to be secondary to his duties as an officer but know nothing of the army's present attitude. -Mr. H.U.S., Califomia.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Anyone who declares himself to be homosexual to his draft board or to the military itself at the time of induction can be reasonably sure that the information is filed somewhere probably permanently. While this information is not, we presume, available to anyone, we believe it safe to assume that FBI and other duly authorized investigative agencies in our government should have access to such information. This we do not positively know; however, the homosexual is today regarded as a "security risk," by all branches of the armed forces, and in the government itself. This is an example of homosexuality itself (and not overt homosexual acts) constituting criminal status.

In Califomia, and probably in most other states, there are statutes aimed at getting known homosexuals out of the teaching profession in the public schools. The idea, it can be presumed, is that such persons are prone to attack. the young. Actually homosexuals seldom do that; experts say that child molestation is most generally the result of various sex repressions, and many so-called heterosexuals are involved in these acts.

Throughout the armed forces, professional ethical codes involving confidences between doctor and patient are secondary to the code of the armed forces itself. The reason is obvious, and we could not expect it to be otherwise. However, we DO take issue with the over-all policy that homosexuals per se are security risks.; If the censure, rejection, opprobrium and scom surrounding homosexuality were taken away, and if the laws were changed so that consenting acts

between adults in private, without use of violence or fraud, were no longer a crime, then much of the stigma would disappear, and so would the evils that permit blackmail to flourish. Then the homosexual would no longer be a security risk.

The executive secretary of a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union recently addressed a group where he was asked what teachers who are homosexual should do to avoid exposure and thereby lose their jobs. He answered: "Then change your job and your field of employment."

We do not advise anyone to declare himself before entering the armed forces. Instead we advise all concerned to seek the advice of an attomey, a psychiatrist, a minIster, or all three before, making a decision. Veterans benefits, passports, bonding on a job and other things can be affected or denied to those so declaring. This may sound like a harsh answer. But until laws and attitudes are changed, it is the fact.

REVIEW EDITOR: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the bibliography you have been including in the REVIEW. I have been meaning to write to ask permission to reproduce a part of it and make it available for friends, mentioning, of course, the source of information... Mr. D. S., Quebec. EDITOR'S NOTE: Permission for such distribution is granted, providing the copies are not offered for sale. A booklet form of a similar bibliography is now available through Village Books in New York (116 Christopher Street). Publication of the remaining installments of the bibliography is expected to be resumed very soon when the material arrives from New York.

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REVIEW EDITOR: I am glad I had the opportunity of meeting you in your office. Truthfully, I went there reluctantly. I didn't know what to expect. But you folks put me at ease at once and I was thrilled that I had met you and I feel that contact with your society will surely help my son and I think if he will stay interested he can be of help to you as well as your being help. ful to him. I shall visit you again when I return to San Francisco. Mrs. G., N. Mex.

REVIEW EDITOR: I congratulate the Soclety on the general standard of the REVIEW and its interesting articles. One article In particular from the copy you sent (March 1958) was of help to me in overcoming the