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Sir: Last September, after three months in the U.S. Navy, I walked into a doctor's office on base. In a tear-filled outburst, I told him I am, had been, and will always be gay. The Navy is now processing my discharge under the heading of Fraudulent Enlistment.
A search for patriotism, fatherly favor, and stability prompted me to hide in the epitome of all-maleness, the military vacuum. Anguished realization that I was denying myself a firm part of my whole being forced me to tell the truth. I am grateful for your article, which has given me insight as to the kind of public reception I will receive when I no longer boast, "I am an American sailor," but cry out more proudly, "I am an American homosexual."
SEAMAN ANTHONY G. LUNDE
U.S.N.
Bainbridge, Md.
Sir: As a lesbian, I felt that the article was for the most part informative and objective. However, I was vastly amused by one line: our "new militancy is making the heterosexual citizens edgy."
For centuries we have written your music and your literary masterpieces, painted your beautiful pictures, designed your clothing and home furnishings, danced and acted in your plays, styled your hair, and in general given you your highly prized American culture; if the truth be known, 95% of American culture is the homosexuals' culture.
Perhaps it is finally time we realize that we contribute to a society that despises us. We want our rights now, not 100 years from now. Try to visualize 12 million homosexual men and women marching on Washington.
Yes, edgy indeed.
S. M. GIBSON
Williamsport, Pa.
Sir: On behalf of the vast legions of heterosexual classical musicians, may I reassure you that "talented homosexuals" don't dominate the field or turn the music world into a closed circle. There are enough old-fashioned happy marriages among leading musicians, from Rubinstein and Serkin to Oistrakh and Stern, to fill a whole issue of TIME. In fact, I believe a Gallup poll would reveal a higher percentage of conventional sexuality among musicians than among businessmen.
HENRI TEMIANKA
Founder and Director California Chamber Symphony
Los Angeles
Sir: I make no judgment about the homosexual. Perhaps those who do judge them should keep in mind Poet Rod McKuen's words: "It is not how we love or who we love but that we love."
JANE AFTON BARRY
Weston, Mass.
Sir: Since no one basiclly cares about whether or not the other fellow likes his steak rare or well done, or how many times he visits the bathroom, why all the fuss about how the other guy likes his sex? Is it anybody's business, really?"
NICOLE LIEBERMAN
Forest Hills, NY.
Constitutional Question
Sir: Coming on the heels of an important Supreme Court decision, the most recent instance (at Vassar, no less!) [Nov. 7] of not entirely peaceful demands for all-black college dormitories raises an interesting question: Is a separate-but-equal facility or segregated housing also unconstitutional if the blacks want it, or only if the whites want it?
DOUGLAS CAMPBELL
Cos Cob, Conn.
Point to Consider
Sir: In your important article "What Would Withdrawal Really Mean?" [Oct. 24], you rightly say, "But it is certainly not in the interest of America's European allies to see the U.S. humiliated and seriously weakened."
I have recently returned from the North Atlantic Assembly in Brussels where the point was made publicly and privately that moratoriums, like peace, are indivisible. If America can abandon a brown ally in midbattle, then she can abandon a white ally as well.
If there is a major loss of confidence in American resolution, there will certainly be an irresistible demand that European countries should produce their own nuclear defenses. An American scuttle will not only lead to the fall of the Saigon government, it will also lead to the collapse of nonproliferation.
PHILIP GOODHART, M.P.
House of Commons
London