difficulty of being a homosexual. This article was "Self Acceptance v. Rejection, by Harry Benjamin, M. D. But I have gone a long way since then. It is, in fact, because of the inner security which I now have that I am willing to extend a helping hand to to others, if asked. Out of anguish and suffering comes compassion. Mr. R. B., Australia

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REVIEW EDITOR: In à movement such as Mattachine, only quality people are interested in quality values. As your co-workers. fully realize, articles in the REVIEW are not sufficiently slanted to capture serious attentions of serious people toward the openings of understanding. Like attracts like and cheapness can only beget just that. As pointed out before, I wish to reiterate that the shallow, flippant, unstable homosexual does not read the REVIEW. These ignoramuses pooh-pooh the whole thing and reaching them in this generation is a worthless task. It cannot be done now. It is quite enough to try to reach serious people. The young, who have just discovered that they are homosexual, are often serious. Their letters to you testify to that. This group is trying to think, trying to find their way, and in the future will be the ones who will carry on the search in the serious sense. Freedom for the homosexually-inclined individual will have to be found within, and that with self-imposed restrictions and responsibilities. Unlimited freedom or li cense would only result in chaos. Mr.R. M., California.

REVIEW EDITOR: A recent magazine article brought to my attention the existence of your organization. An existence I wish I had known of much sooner. From what I was able to gather from the very short but highly enlightning article, your standards and aims are to be highly praised. I was very pleased to discover that someone cared enough about other members of the so-called socially unacceptable group to try and lift the curtain of indecendy that has too long enveloped us.

I shall appreciate any and all information about the Society you would be able to provide.

If I may be just a little melodramatic for a moment, I would like to inject a Latin phrase which I have admired and which I think describes the majority of our population. Damnant quod non intelligunt

...

They condemn that which they do not comprehend... Miss D. E. Califomia.

NEGLECTED ART

OF BEING DIFFERENT (Continued from page 26) ·

persistence or energy, to take charge-in other words, to be different.

PRE-OCCUPATION

WITH SELF

The fear of being different, like most fears, tends to diminish when you drag it into the light and take a good look at it. At the bottom of such fears lies an intense pre-occupation with self.

That comical hat, back in my childhood, might have caused some momentary merriment or teasing, but the whole thing was too trivial to have lasted long. I was the one who kept it alive by agonizing about it. Like, shyness, this sort of selfconsciousness is a form of inverted egotism. Once you face this fact, you are not so likely to be victimized by it.

It also helps to remind yourself occasionally that some of the disapproval or hostility that you shrink from encountering is probably imaginary.

IN GOOD COMPANY Another way to minimize the fear of being different is to remind yourself, if you really do run into resentment or ridicule, that you are in pretty good company. Very few of the great pioneers of thought or action escaped being laughed at, criticized or even martyred.

Most of the great religious leaders of history, have been on-conformists. Christ was

the most striking and dramatic example; He was, in fact, a revolutionist. He defied authority, as when He healed sick people on the Sabbath. He upset convention, as when He sat down to dinner with publicans mattachine REVIEW

and sinners. He was not afraid to use violence, as when He drove the money-changers out of the temple.

It takes courage to be different, but there is also an art to it. It's a gentle art; an unobtrusive art, but it requires real skill. It's the art of not antagonizing people unnecessarily by your differentness. ATTITUDE OF SUPERIORITY

The beginning of wisdom in this area is to realize that people don't object to differentness nearly so much as they object to the attitude of superiority that so often goes with it.

Some very rugged individualists never learn this lesson. Billy Mitchell's concept of air power was prophetic-and correct. Unfortunately, he could not conceal his conviction that anyone who disagreed with him was a fool. As a result, his hopes and dreams were thwarted for years; he didn't live to see their fulfillment.

The rule-of-thumb is very simple: be as different as you like, but try to be tolerant of the people who differ from . you.

WE'RE NOT ALIKE Actually, no two people are alike, and if we all granted to one another the right simply to be ourselves, we would be different enough.

When he was eight years old, someone asked Henry Thoreau what he was going to be when he grew up. "Why," said the boy, "I will be I!" He was, too. And what we remember best about him now is precisely his differentness.

So take a look at your life and check the areas where you are letting a foolish fear of "what people might say" hold you down or hold you back. Then go ahead and do a few of these unorthodox things. The penalties will certainly be less-and the rewards may be much greater than you think.

Problem of the Youth Whose Sex Is Mixed Up

By Dr. Walter C. Alvarez Emeritus Consultant in Medicine, Mayo Clinic Many mothers write me pathetic letters expressing their puzzlement and sorrow over a son who is not very masculine.. He may be goodlooking, and perhaps "almost too good-looking for a boy." Perhaps his interests have always been decidedly artistic, and the chances are he has never had any interest in athletics. He may never

have cared to go out with a girl.

Perhaps, when he came to be twenty or so, he became terribly upset and almost out of his mind when at last he saw clearly that he was not as other men are; that his love interests were directed toward other men, and hence he might never have the happiness of having a wife and a home and children. An Accident of Genetics

I don't know how any one 25