Open Letter to Sandra Pine

I was touched by your article, "Yes, I Am" in the March edition of THE LADDER; touched, and a little terrified.

I see two well dressed women, perfectly groomed, at whom the finger of suspicion has never pointed; their hats fashionably perched above masks that never slip. Two perfect ladies, completely feminine. Miss Pine, might I ask what are you being feminine for? Whom are you trying to deceive? Yourself, or the well dressed, well groomed, completely masculine men you meet every day? Or your conventional families, who trust you and would never guess? Is it not possible that these normal business and professional friends are as afraid of showing you that they know, as you are afraid of knowing they know ? Let us by all means keep our personal lives as private as can be; but if we are lucky enough (and many are not) to have private lives why not let them be as full and satisfying as we can possibly make them? A hand touched beneath the table; one day in seven alone; the occasional week-end; even a trip to Europe in fifteen years is that the best you can do for your love life, Miss Pine?

Would you lose your job, your mother's love or your right to vote Republican if you let slip just a couple of small hairpins, took a flat with you friend, and started to make up for all the time you two have lost? Who is going to worry? Not your secretary you haven't made a pass at her in ten years wo know that. Not those professional and business gentlemen you've been giving them the red light all along. Who else is there? The ladies at your social gatherings they'll be only too thankful you're not after their men. And at the very worst, if the whole town knows you've left home and are sharing with a roommate; is that going to rock anybody?

My friend and I have been together for twenty years; it took us eight years, owing to the war before we were able to live together. We're not at all smart or well groomed, and I don't honestly know if you'd say we are feminine or not. Probably in every place we've ever lived