people who have not had it drawn to their attention have 'no strong views on the subject at all, but are probably mildly hostile on the strength of reading or hearing occasional things such as court reports. A lot of these people probably know very little about homosexuals, and it would be very useful to find out if this is so, and what their impressions are.

In the sphere of social help we have, as I said earlier, a continuous stream of people coming to us at our office, whom we try to help as best we can by putting them in touch with suitable doctors, clergymen, lawyers and other advisers. If we had sufficient time and money to advertise the fact that we help people in this way, we would get more than we could cope with. The fact that all the people who come to us just arrive, without our doing any advertising to bring them in, does make us feel that there is a great need for very much more positive social help than exists at present for people who are puzzled and worried about their sexual lives. Some of the people who come to us are. in quite dire straits, and we have had men admitted as in-patients to psychiatric hospitals within twenty-four or forty-eight hours; but most of them are just people who feel much better for a friendly chat, and go away after it with a rather more balanced outlook on life. Our counsellors in this work give a great deal of time and trouble to it-far more than we could do ourselves. We are especially grateful to people like the Camberwell Samaritans, who have been a great help to several people with quite serious problems just recently, and also to bodies such as the Voluntary Hostels Conference, who had a very interesting symposium on homosexuality a few months ago, attended by a great many probation officers, hostel wardens and others who wield a great deal of influence in the social work field.

We find that people who have been in prison and come to us asking for help in finding jobs are a big problem, because unfortunately there is more prejudice against ex-prisoners who have been in prison for a homosexual offence than there is against somebody who has merely stolen a few thousand pounds from the petty cash, for instance. This is a fault in social attitudes which is going to take a long time to put right, but we do what we can for ex-prisoners, even if it is not very much I know of some professionally qualified men who have been six or nine months without succeeding in getting even the most menial job after they have come out of prison.

Growing out of these small beginnings, there is a very healthy realisation among social workers of all kinds that homosexuals are human beings with problems-not people who automatically deserve punishment; that in this respect the law is an ass, and that the social and human problems of homosexual people have got to be coped with rather regardless of what the law theoretically demands. All this growing awareness of the problems that homo-

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sexuals are up against is a hopeful sign, and it has made us feel that the time may be riper now than it was two years ago (when we first suggested it) to get funds and backing for the idea of a psychosexual out-patients' clinic, where not only homosexuals but anybody with sexual difficulties and problems can go for help and guidance which is skilled, sympathetic and inexpensive. The Albany Trust convened some meetings about this at Church House two years ago. They came to nothing, unfortunately, but we are now trying to revive the idea and get wider support for it.

From what I have been saying, you will see that there is a great deal to be done and not nearly enough people, time or money to do it with. I have been helping the Albany Trust and the Homosexual Law Reform Society in one capacity or another ever since they started, and I am more than ever convinced as a result of doing so that law reform is an essential step towards a sexually sane society. I have also come to realise that law reform by itself is not enough; it will be merely preliminary to the real job which the Albany Trust must continue doing after the law is changed, of helping everybody in this country who has a sexual problem, whether it is a heterosexual one or a homosexual one, to find the way towards a happier, a healthier and a fuller life. After all, our lives here on earth are very short, and we should not be having to waste a minute of them on unnecessary or artificially created problems.

Eleventh Annual Conference of The Mattachine Society, Inc., will be held in San Francisco on Saturday, August 29, . 1964. Location and program details will be announced at least a month before that date.

The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected. -Justice Wm. O. Douglas

SEX GUILT-A NATIONAL DISEASE

"Because of the enormous disparity between our sex laws and actual sex practices, literally millions of Americans are consciously or unconsiciously guilty about many of the harmless sex acts that they perform. There can be no question that considerable emotional disturbance is directly attributable to groundless sex fear the kind of fear that is * encouraged by many of our existing laws against perfectly harmless forms of sex behavior." Albert Ellis, Ph.D.