Phi Pi Epsilon

PHI PI EPSILON has been a going concern now for some months. These months have brought forth enthusiasm and disapproval, accep- tance and rejection of the idea, willingness to join and help and alse reluctance and fear--in short a variety of attitudes ranging from whole-hearted co-operation down to indifference. Yany comments and suggestions have been made about it. Some of this counsel was good and has been taken to heart and some of it was motivated by either fear, ignorance of the purposes, or antagonism and was therefore rejected. But experience is the best teacher and from the experiences of these past months much has been learned and the path ahead is clearer for having learned it.

Before relating plans for the future it is only fair that some of the opposing arguments be given and reply made in order to clear the air for those who are undecided. Those opposing FPE make four assertions principally: (1) FPE is a private clique org- anized By Virginia for her own purposes and dominated by her and is undemocratic and dictatorial; (2) Virginia and/or Chevalier uses the money paid in; (3) It is dangerous to put your right name on the application as it could get you in trouble; and (4) What's in it for the member anyway? Now some replies.

As the Editor and Publisher of TRANSVESTIA, which you will all agree is the only magazine of its kind, I naturally have access to more information, more names, more histories, more problems, more hopes expressed, more fears revealed than anybody else in the field and probably in the world. This being the case, I, more than most anyone else, saw the need for self acceptance on the one hand and public enlightenment on the other. This, together with access to the names from the subscription list made me the logical one to try to put together a national organization. Whoever organizes anything is the one to be shot at by others simply because he cr she is at the top of the pile and in the most vulnerable position. I have observed that the human race can be divided into leaders, followers and a middle group. This middle group is made up of people who have enough knowledge and intelligence to understand

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