Any generalization about a group of human beings is sure to be full of fallacies, but perhaps we can set forth two theories about these people. First, there are many more than most people think. We're all familiar with Freud's the ory of sexual development, in which the child is first self-centered, then attracted to the parent of the same Gex, then to the parent of the opposite sex, then to contemporaries or older adults of the same sex, and so on. According to this, maturity brings heterosexual love, and homosexuality is a form of immaturity. The individual may be arrested at this phase because of some traumatic experience in early childhood. This theory seems to be accepted by the people who argue that homosexuality is a form of emotional illness and can be cured by psychotherapy. Perhaps the acceptance of this idea by people who sincerely want to be tolerant and understanding is one reason why so many of them find it hard to accept the homophile who is happy in his love relationship and a balanced, socially useful individual with no more than his share of the usual human conflicts and problems.

This theory fails to account for the emotionally ambivalent, who probably are no more immature or neurotic than the general population. After all, we live in a culture that breeds neurosis. But we can say that there are a great many of thom. The response to an article on the subject in a recent issue of THE LADDER indicates a realization of their own dual nature on the part of many readers.

The second possibility or probability is that many of the relationships formed by bi sexual persons are deeply meaningful and are entered into with the intention of permanence. Not here do we find the casual encounter, the pickup, the tentative relationship entered into for sexual purposes alone. The bisexual is rather unlikely to frequent bars, parks, and washrooms. He seldom forms e temporary liaison with someone met at a party. He is likely to move slowly and cautiously into an affair, partly no doubt because he is more likely than the outright homosexual and the forthright heterosexual to be rebuffed, but also in part because he is looking for companionship and tenderness, as well as physical fulfillment.

In the words of Richard Lewinsohn, author of A HISTORY OF SEXUAL CUSTOMS, "As attractiveness cannot be confined to