ales. They wish to receive the male as a female does. In short it is what a woman IS that they imitate. The heterosexual femmeperson- ator on the other hand is interested in what a woman represents. He does not wish to copy her in bed, he wishes to copy her in her social behaviour, appearance, clothing and prerogatives....in short, her gender-- her femininity. Even most of those homphiles who affect femme attire do so for the purpose of attracting a male who is willing to have male-male relations, but whose conscience and cultural train- ing make it difficult to enjoy without the sham and rationalization of the feminine element being present. Again there is, of course, the special class of inverts, not just homosexuals, but persons who feel themselves as essentially feminine in all respects and who are there- fore rightfully entitled to the attentions of a man. The fact that the genital apparatus is out of harmony with the psychological orientation is unfortunate and leads society to class the invert with the regular male-male type of homophile. This type of person is now more prop- erly considered a "transsexual".
With these factors cleared up what should the relationship be? Since both the homophile and the femmepersonator are misunderstood and not accepted by society, both groups have a common focus of act- ion. Whatever the more highly organized homophile community does to improve their lot tends to improve ours and vice versa. Anything that removes some of the bigotry and sexual infantilism from Our society benefits everyone. The homophile group is much better organ- ized, larger, and has been at it far longer than we have. Thus where we can assist any general programs they have for breaking down prej- udice and legal restrictions, we should do so. Where we can take ad- vantage of any organizations or procedures which they have set up which can be of help to us individually or collectively, we should do so. We should establish and maintain contact with the organizational centers that are maintained by the homophile community, getting from them and giving to them such information and assistance as may be mutually helpful. All this is on the impersonal level, now what of more personal relationships?
I am a Democrat, but I fraternize with Republicans. I am a
Protestant, but I have a lot of Catholic and Jewish friends. I am not a nudist but I have some friends who are. I am also not a homosexual either in performance or desire, but I have a number of very fine friends who are. In short, humanity and its good qualities should be appreciated and enjoyed when they are manifested in an individual not just when he conforms to our own particular set of beliefs or pat- terns of behavior. Individuals have values other than these which they can contribute to our total experience. As a Democrat I do not
74.