ARE HOMOSEXUALS BECOMING RESPECTABLE?
(Jet Magazine April 15, 1954) One of the best kept secrets on the campus of a southern Negro college was that a noted genius was overly fond of young boys and to protect the scientists reputation he was never left alone with tender youths. Likewise, a mid-western colored high school football coach is known for his winning teams - and his homosexual tendencies. Behind the scenes, some of America's most celebrated males have tripped the gay fantastic. This fact, further amplified by the recent discovery of some 1,100 homosexuals in the U.S. State Department has prompted the public to wonder if - by its own sanction - homosexuals are becoming acceptable. One of the most outspoken sex non-conformists on the American scene is Charles R. Brown, a 27 year old shake dancer and professional female impersonator. Brown attempted last year to go to Denmark for an operation that would make him 'a woman legally' so he could marry an Army sergent stationed in Germany.
Unlike Brown, noted lecturer Bayard Rustin, 41, who was a Committee on Racial Equality leader, denies homosexual tendencies, yet has been arrested several times on morals charges. He was jailed in California a year ago for allegedly committing a sex offense with two men in a car. Among other prominent Negroes whose strange sex lives are whispered conversation is a celebrated writer, a successful actor, a noted educator, two members of a nationally known quartet, a West Coast newspaperman, a classical pianist, a late boxing champion, several male choreographers and a now -deceased composer.
Dr. Alfred Kinsey, author of the two extensive studies on American sexual behavior, estimates that homosexuality has touched 37 per cent of U.S. males. The fact that so many flourish and are accepted by other mates is an indication of their almost casual acceptance in this country. Much of the problem of sex perversion is being bared on Broadway, where four plays dealing with homosexuality have reached the stage this season. Two of them, End As A Man and Tea And Sympathy, deal with sex deviation in prep schools. The others, Ladies Of The Corridor and The Immoralist, explore homosexuality in other phases of society. Many people are willing to treat members of the 'third sex' as victims of an illness that needs treatment rather than criminals who should be punished.
Such was the attitude of Detroit minister Prophet Jones when his valet, James Parker, 25 was placed on probation for soliciting a policeman for immoral purposes. Said the dapper Prophet: 'Psychiatrists said the boy liked men more than women but that's no grounds for arrest.'
IS THERE HOPE FOR HOMOSEXUALS? (JET MAGAZINE AUG 7, 1952) Whether they walk with simpering hinged-hipped gait or hide their effeminate characteristics with baggy tweeds and smelly pipes, there are in the US today, 8 million males who prefer intimates with other males. Collectively, they present America with the biggest pychosexual problem of modern times because:
1. They cause dislocations in family life:
2. breed maladjusted inmates in jails.
3. like persons afflicted with a dread disease, bloat their number each year with by the planned seduction of innocents.
Despite the far-reaching significance of homosexuality, there are no U.S. societies dedicated to its prevention and cure. Yet ther are organizations interested in curbing every other malfunction of the human body and mind.
For years, such sexual deviates have been either amusing or just objects of pity to the mass public. No one thought of curing them. Recently, however, attention - and hope- have been given to possible cures for such social mavericks.
Homosexuality, a greek word meaning 'same sexualities' among all races and classes of people and even in some animals. It affects both men and women, and is perhaps the best recorded, but least studied sexual aberration in the world. It was accepted and respected by the Greeks, and the modern word for such deviates among females - Lesbian - comes from the Greek named island Lesbos, where the poetess Sappho, who preferred the love of other women, lived.
Greek men generally went through a period of pederasty and it was considered perfectly alright for a philosopher to embrace a lad. Male homosexuality cause the destruction of the biblical city Sodom, from which is derived the word sodomy, and the practice is condemned in Leviticus 18th Chapter, 22nd verse.
The Romans, however, did not take such views: Nero seduced men as well as their wives, and was in turn seduced by men. Ceasar, too, is said to have participated in such relations with Roman males.............
Since third sex feelings have their roots deep in the cloudy corners of the human mind, and since most homosexuals have taken the final step by the time they are 15 years of age, psychiatrists despair its cure.
It is admittedly impossible to cure such a person who has become 'satisfied'. These, psychiatrists say are men who........enjoy the hurts and barbs society gives them for their dereliction. Othen they feel a need to be punished and accepts society's slaps. Others over-compensate for their inadequacies by flaunting their sex sickness in much the same way that a circus freak displays a monstrous deformity.
In instances where confirmed homosexuals go to hospitals for cures they often are not 'cured' but are taught to live with their deviation and not feel guilty. They may be told that Shakespeare, Tchiakovsky, Gide and others are suffered their affliction........Archaic laws and inadequate scientific research into handling of perversion make it possible, however, for curable perverts to remain untreated, while incurable sex maniacs are allowed to roam freely through society.
