Are We Satisfying the Need

for Sex Education?

The yearning for information about sex rears its head in odd places and at odd times. But nevertheless it persists, and it includes the young.

It was 9 p.m. on a Sunday in Union Station, Ogden Utah. Union Pacific train 9, The City of St. Louis, had arrived and was being split into sections destined for Los Angeles and San Francisco. Passengers poured off the train and flooded the station's main waiting room during the 20-minute delay. This was one of two daily main activity periods in the station-the place was dormant except for a morning and evening "rush hour" between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., when 32 of the 34 scheduled trains arrived and departed. At a newsstand in the middle of the hubub corner where passengers were buying and eating cold hot dogs (cheaper than the diner), was a 10-year-old blond boy, avidly sorting through the comic books, but with his eyes glued to a copy of Sexology. After a peek over his shoulder, he'd lay down a copy of Dennis the Menace or Supermouse, and flip open the sexological journal and read a few paragraphs. Then another furtive glance and a few more pages of Sexology. Then he quickly took Sexology from its shelf and inserted it into the middle of the comic book. More bravely now, he continued to read the inner magazine. He turned around, faced the center of the room so that all could see that he was reading a comic book.

What was up? Was this one of the juvenile thieves newsstand dealers have to watch so closely? We continued to watch from a hard bench a few feet away.

Now the youngster looked up from Sexology as a man, obviously his father, got up from across the room and walked over to the boy. Immediately the boy dropped Sexology onto a pile of Woman's Home Companion, picked up two additional comic book titles in hasty random, and went with his father to the cashier to pay for the three magazines designed for children.

The boy rolled up the three comic books, stuck them in a hip pocket of his jeans, and followed his father out of the station, but glanced back at the copy of the magazine he wanted but didn't dare buy.

"Train 9, City of St. Louis, loading on track 5,❞ blared the loudspeakers, followed in turn with, "Train 27, Southern Pacific, the Overland, now receiving passengers on track 2."

People moved from the station, and away from the newsstand, The cashier came over to straighten up the magazines. He picked up the copy of Sexology, placed it back in the rack where it belonged, and straightened out the disarrayed comic book titles.■

mattachine REVIEW

Bogarde Takes Daring Role

by THOMAS WISEMAN

The somewhat belated discovery of sex by British films have been having a rejuvenating effect on the whole industry.

In America the phrase "made in Britain" now has the kind of ooh-la-la connotation previously enjoyed and exploited-by the French and Italians

DIRK BOGARDE

Suddenly Britain has a reputation for being daring, and the heady whiff of box-office returns has inspired our formerly staid and stuffy producers to become even more daring. (It is significant that Mr. Stanley Kubrick came to Britain to make Lolita, where there is fortunately a benign and sophisticated censor).

It is typical of the British genius for compromise that the first film to to deal specifically with the subject of homosexuality should turn up in the form of a thriller and be made by the Blue Lamp team, Basil Dearden and Michael Relph.

When I visited Pinewood Studios the other day, I was assured by Mr. Relph that although in his film, Victim, the subject of homosexuality was dealt with fairly and squarely, this would not need to prevent anyone enjoying it as a "jolly good thriller."

In the present instance they are, of course, dealing with a more tricky theme, and they have chosen the only approach that, presumably, would be considered acceptable at this time.

The hero of Victim is an eminent barrister, played by Mr. Dirk Bogarde with greying temples, who has homosexual leanings but has never put them into practice.

Thus it is possible to be daring and respectable at the same time, and the danger of alienating Mr. Bogarde's considerable female following is minimised.

I talked to Mr. Bogarde about the possible adverse effect on his career which appearing in such a film-and such a part-might have.

Mr. Bogarde said that, indeed, he had felt some misgivings about accepting the role, but in his 15 years as a Rank contract star he had not been offered so many good parts that he could afford to turn this one down. London Express Service. Reprinted from The Guardian, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

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