you how. Another technique, and one which we know several persons have used, is to designate Mattachine in one's will. A third is to act through a bank in setting up a fiduciary trust fund as one person has done.

Less involved are the things like money orders or cashier's checks. Anonymity, if it must, can be preserved in many ways of contributing.

If, as an interested reader, you or any friend or associate are holding off with a contribution because you are afraid you'll be known for making it, then remember this: Your fear may result in the spreading of greater fear now and in the future, whereas your courage and help, coupled with that of a dedicated leadership of persons who put their faces behind their names, can work to dissolve the very roots of that fear. But the work of Mattachine absolutely requires the financial support of many, many persons who have not yet seen fit to aid it, because the present resources and even the slowly increasing income are not enough to meet current expenses and retire past debt.

So serious is the situation and this is not another crisis, but just another SOS for the enduring and persistent crisis that has existed for sev eral years-that Mattachine totters on the edge of complete collapse. Withholding taxes, rent, printing bills, and other goods and services unpaid for are such that each month the Society falls several hundred dollars short of keeping abreast, and goes more deeply into debt instead of coming out. Attacking this challenge in the fiscal year ending August 31, Treasurer Conrad Bownan announced that the past 12 months of utmost austerity had resulted in cutting down expense over the preceeding year. This is laudable, and every effort to hold the line will be made-because it is imperative.

But conducting our program of projects and publications to which we are committed does not require that the increasing expenses be met. Continued lack of funds might well mean failure to accomplish much of what has been outlined before, and dictate to us that the public does not consider our program worthwhile to the extent of supporting it. Therefore we would simply limit the operation to that which limited income would pay for.

Getting specific, we must report this sad fact, in spite of a record breakingincome during the preceding fiscal year: As we go to press, Mattachine has obligations of about $1000 which it must meet in a very few days; it has further indebtednedd of about $4000 which must be met in a few weeks, and it requires an average monthly income increased by about $650 to keep abreast of current minimal operations.

mattachine REVIEW

WESTERN VERSION OF "THOUGHT REFORM"

TO "CURE" DEVIATES

ROLLAND HOWARD

AN ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY in the San Francisco Chronicle of August 12 reported the latest Western adaptation of Pavlov's "Conditioned Reflex" theories in behalf of the current fixation on conformity. Headlined "Hope for Cure of Sex Deviates," the story tells of an experiment by a group of British mental specialists on a 33-year-old transvestite. They had the man stand on an electric grill, and then told him to undress (in order) to don ladies' wear).

Every time he started to disrobe, the doctors gave him a "sharp electric shock in his feet." Repeated 75 times a day for six days, the memory of the shock associated with his intent to dress in women's clothing became so unpleasant that he "neither desired nor indulged in any transvestite behavior when a check was made six months after he left the hospital." The doctors hope, reported the article, that their work on transvestites may lead to cures for homosexuality and other sexual deviations.

I, for one, instinctively distrust methods of thought-control. Homosexuality is not a case of measles. It is not something a person "has"; it is something he is.

Nor is the use of "conditioned reflex therapy" for its "cure" anything new. Dr. Andrew Salter of New York has been preaching it for years. His methods (by which he claims at least some "cures") include such quaint little remedies as requiring his homosexual patient to concentrate on the pleasant sensation of the "warm, moist vagina." Did you ever try that? If not, do; and I'll join you in a while at the nearest gay bar.

Applying the electric shock 'aversion' treatment to homosexuals seems simple enough. We will simply put the patient on the grill with a "trick" for whom he feels a strong desire, and instruct him to "go at it." Every time he attempts to make some physical contact with his intended lover, we give him a powerful jolt.

So far, so good. Now when he sees a desirable man, he finds he can't even raise his finger.

But are we out to make everyone stop doing the things we happen not to..., enjoy ourselves? Or do we now attempt to indoctrinate the former homosexual with positive heterosexual impulses?

If conformity is our aim (as I suspect it is), then surely we shall want this second phase accomplished. If the good doctors have not yet devised a plan of approach, I should like to suggest the following: