On the whole, then, the male group is quite similar to the Lesbian group in gem ral characteristics, in that both are well above average in education and professional status and at least average in income, the male averago surpassing the female in all three respects. The men,

like the women, appear to be by and large a group with civic interests and stable habits of work and residence.

A fact which may seem inconsistent with the above is that 30% of the men reported having been arrested, compared to 12% of the women. The most common reasons given by the women were drunkenness and traffic violations; while for the men disorderly conduct is the reason most frequently given, with charges relating to overt homosexuality coming next. These facts we may assume reflect the differing life circumstances of the male and female homosexual. The male, with a possibly stronger sex drive, is faced with more rigid barriers against its expression in any form, so that conflict with the law at one time or another may be almost inevitable for many. Add to this the apparently greater tendency of males to congregate in bars, the tendency of the police to focus attention on males in public places, the greater obviousness of male sexual expression, and police entrapment practices with males, and the results are not so surprising as they may appear.

III. Family History

Family background of the men's group seems some what more stable than that of the women, as shown in Figure III on page 12.

Furthermore, where only one parent cared for the child, death was the more frequent cause in the male group; divorce or separation was the more frequent cause in the Lesbian group. Also fewer of the men reported alcoholic parento (11% compared to 23% for the women) and somewhat fewer of the men's parents had ever been arrested (7% of the men's parents, 10% of the women's). The percentage of parental commitments to mental hospitals, already very low among the women (4.5%) was still lower among the men (3%). No man reported his parents to be users of narcotios (1.3% of the women did). However, one mother in the male group was a prostitute.

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