37 20 2500 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a86dd75cab820b6059379fd60fe046bc.pdf 9c426b0084a8fadf0b686e0c7a8cbc32 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Mattachine Society of Washington Committee on Religious Concerns Statement of Purpose I. It is the purpose of this committee to approach the clergy, the leaders, and the laity of all religious groups in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C., in orders: A. To effect the integration of the individual homosexual into the religious life of the community: 1. By discussing with clergymen, religious leaders, and laity, singly and in groups, a clarification of the place and the role of the homosexual, as such, in the various religious congregations, leading to elimination of the rejection encountered by most homosexuals in most religious bodies. 2. By establishing a referral service composed of knowledgeable clergymen, so that homosexuals, their parents, and their families, who desire assistance in regard to spiritual and religious problems involving homosexuality may be referred to an appropriate counselor. 3. By acting as liaison, as may be needed, between the religious community and the homosexual community of the greater Washington area. B. To enlist the moral support and the active assistance of religious groups in metropolitan Washington, in the homosexuals' struggle for civil liberties and for human and social rights, acting with the assurance that religion seeks to promote basic freedoms for every individual, as irrespective of sexual orientation as of religion and race. C. To inform the clergy, the leaders, and the laity of all religious groups about homosexuals and homosexuality: 1. By aiding religious groups and religious leaders in the obtaining of accurate information (traditionally difficult to secure) about homosexuals and homosexuality, and suggesting informative publications and recommending or furnishing qualified lecturers on the subject of homosexuality. 2. By encouraging inter-religious discussion of homosexuality, and providing clergymen and religious leaders who believe that society should no longer ignore a social problem of vast dimensions, with legitimate opportunities for inter-group exchanges of opinion. II. It is not a purpose of this committee to promulgate any spiritual or theological doctines, but instead to ask each religious body constructively to approach, in its own way, the social, spiritual, and religious problems which arise as a result of present discriminatory attitudes toward homosexuals and homosexuality. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mattachine Society of Washington Committee on Religious Concerns Statement of Purpose Description An account of the resource Organization Collection, Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Archive of LGBT History</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/9b4c65a36e59b4308bec8fc25ab44610.pdf 9037805eee45584068c07fc6481c9fae Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document New York Council on Religion and the Homosexual Basic Biography The following bibliography represents a basic listing of contributions from religious sources to the literature on homosexuality. It has been prepared by the Council on Equality for Homosexuals (CEH) for use by the New York Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH) at the request of the West Side Discussion Group (WSDG), the sponsoring organization. If so desired, an expanded, annotated listing can be prepared. 1. Atkinson, Ronald. Sexuality Morality. Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1966. 2. Lassoe, John. "The New Morality in the Great Society." Speech made to the 1965 ECHO conference. Reprints available from the Mattachine Society of New York @ 25 cents. 3. Maddocks, Lewis I. "The Homosexual and the Law," Social Action. Vol. 34, No. 4 (December, 1967). Council for Christian Social Action, United Church of Christ, 289 Park Avenue South, New York. (Att: Miss Elizabeth Johns) 4. Treese, Robert, Ph.D. "Toward a Theology of Homosexuality." Boston University, School of Theology. 5. Wood, Rev. Robert. Christ and the Homosexual. Vantage Press, 1960. (not in print) 6. Wood, Rev. Robert. "Homosexuality and the Church." In the December, 1964 newsletter of the Mattachine Society of New York. 7. A Brief of Injustices. Published in 1965 by C.R.H., Inc., 330 Ellis Street, San Francisco, California 94102. 8. Towards a Quaker View of Sex. Literature Committee of the Friends Home Service Committee. Revised Edition, 1964. London. Copies available locally from the Quakers or the National Council of Churches @ 75 cents or $1.00. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource NY CRH Basic Bibliography Description An account of the resource Organization Collection Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Archive of LGBT History</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/384f8a82eb40212909677f882d081c62.pdf df2eaf88b845d0b3dc610b22a77df717 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document CRH -The N. Y. Metropolitan Area -Council on -Religion and the Homosexual- (a proposed policy statement (from the WHY Committee In order to promote a better understanding of the homosexual condition by the religious community in the greater New York Metropolitan Area and a better understanding of what the religious community has to offer the homosexual, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual sets forth this policy statement: 1) To provide means of orienting the religious community (local congregations, councils of churches and synagogues, national instrumentalities, related schools and other institutions, and their publications) on aspects of homosexuality in accordance with testimony by homosexuals of both genders and available valid scientific data. 2) To encourage and assist the religious community to re-examine its biblical and theological positions in light of contemporary social conditions on fundamental areas of involvement for the homosexual including but not limited to the meaning of masculine and feminine, morality and ethics, salvation and redemption, marriage, family relationships. 3) To encourage and assist the religious community to open its ministries of worship, fellowship; service, and outreach to the homosexual; to know him or her as a person, as a "thou" not as an "it". 4) To encourage and assist the religiously concerned homosexual to find a meaningful relationship as a homosexual within the religious community. 5) To encourage and assist further research and understanding of homosexuality by religiously concerned individuals and organizations, publications and denominational officers not only for the sake of improved honesty and accuracy but as a counter force to centuries of ignorance, fear, prejudice, and superstition on the subject. 6) To provide an effective voice in our geographical area in behalf of homosexuals in matters of laws, police behavior, employment, housing, the military and federal government policy. 7) To be especially concerned with young people facing the possibility of homosexuality in their own lives and with professional persons seeking to relate constructively with them. 8) To cooperate with other Councils on Religion and the Homosexual in this country and abroad. To cooperate with homophile organizations in this country and abroad. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource NY Metropolitan Area CRH Proposed Policy Statement Description An account of the resource Organization Collection Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Archive of LGBT History</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/130de05a67148ebb59406553f33f8abe.pdf 89ebbbd7862587ebaad410b27a04acb6 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: A Report on the Councils on Religion and the Homosexual January 26, 1969 by Foster Gunnison Jr., Institute of Social Ethics Hartford, Conn. Prepared for: January 29, 1969 meeting, CRH of New York, Holy Apostle Episcopal Church, New York City. Page 2: Out San Francisco way the Methodist Church operates a social service institution called the Glide Urban Center. Its purpose is to provide a bridge between the church and the many and varied social problems afflicting the youth and other residents of that city. In this it is representative of current trends in all of our churches with ministers moving from pulpit to street-corner to tackle first hand the full range of, now well advertised, urban economic and social ills. San Francisco is also the birthplace and chief operating center of several of our country's leading pioneer homophile organizations - groups of militant homosexuals fighting systematically for an equal place for all homosexuals in a traditionally hostile society. Perhaps this is why San Francisco is sometimes called the "Queen City." The Society for Individual Rights, the Mattachine Society, the all-lesbian Daughters of Bilitis, the league for Civic Education, the Tavern Guild of San Francisco, the Vanguard Society - all are headquartered out there, and all played an important part in the development and support of the unique institution now to be related. A few years ago a Methodist minister, Theodore Mr. McIlvenna, working out of the Glide Center took a particular interest in the problems of the homosexual. He was well aware of the way our society treats its homosexual citizens, and well aware of the near total failure of the church to do something constructive about it. And so, in the activist spirit characteristic of Glide, Rev. McIlvenna set himself to this perhaps toughest of all churchly tasks, and began approaching the leaders of the San Francisco homophile organizations. A special retreat was eventually scheduled for the spring of 1964. Sixteen brave and curious ministers of Methodist, Protestant Episcopal, Lutheran, and United Church of Christ denomination met with thirteen militant, skeptical homosexuals from the aforementioned organizations in the now-famous Mill Valley Conference held at the White Memorial Retreat Center in the Golden Gate foothills across the bay from San Francisco. It was a three day affair during which the homosexual found the church, at least as represented here, not to be the bible-thumping, brimstone-spewing condemner of homosexuals as previously envisioned, and ministers found the homosexual, at least as represented here, not to be the amoral, anti-social, wrist-flipping weirdo of time-honored stereotype. The conference was indeed a shared experience - a unique and courageous beginning toward rapprochement of historically antithetical views and attitudes. And it was the first time that the American homosexual had been able to establish meaningful communication with a major social institution on a systematic basic. As a consequence of this exploratory retreat a Council on Religion and the Homosexual, embracing ministers and homophile leaders, the first of its kind anywhere to my knowledge, was incorporated in the State of California as a non-profit educational enterprise. The council got off to a turbulent start. In order to raise funds for operations, it scheduled a benefit "gay" ball for New Years day of 1965 in a downtown hall in San Francisco, clearing first with the police department and receiving assurances that there would be no police harassment or interference. Sure enough, the ill-fated ball was raided in classic free-wheeling, swashbuckling style. The hall was saturated with police. Ministers were rough-shouldered aside. Arrests were made on trumped up charges (1) and some of these resulted in convictions. This was the first time the ministers of the Council were direct witness to a massive anti-homosexual action, not to mention their own abusement. It was a first, dramatic, totally unexpected confrontation with the establishment. They said it as a shocking display of force and crudity, and an unbelievable violation of public word and trust. If there were any ministers associated with the Council who had harbored lingering doubts about their commitment to this new and controversial enterprise, such doubts were dispelled with finality. And the Council, now fully united, promptly called a press conference and brought a million dollar suit against the City of San Francisco. (2) Today the Council is represented with clergy from all the major Christian faiths from Unitarian to Roman Catholic, plus professionals from the social sciences, psychiatry, education and the law, and, of course, a full complement of leaders from the homophile organizations. (1) E.g - a chair collapsed under two spectators who instinctively grabbed each other for support. They were promptly arrested and convicted for disorderly conduct. (2) The civil suit has not as yet been resolved, but relations with police have improved markedly, and news coverage of the whole affair was extensive. Page 3: It is governed by 21 directors elected members at the annual business meetings. Its purposes are to educate - to dispel myths, ignorance, and combat fear and hostility; to initiate dialogue - encourage discussion; to study - to promote research and increase the appallingly inadequate body of knowledge on the subject of homosexual; to defend and protect homosexuals against abuse - to give practical aid and counseling when homosexuals run into difficult or require guidance in their personal lives. Its chosen methods are 1) orientation, and 2) confrontation. It desires that society shall accept homosexuals, and judge all persons on the basis of factors other than sexual preference. In the words of Rev. McIlvenna: "Let us recognize that we are indeed sexual beings, and let us rejoice in our sexuality." It predicts that as social isolation of the homosexual recedes, and education progresses, all members of society will have their attention directed to the correction of a multitude of governmental, commercial, and private discriminatory laws, policies, practices, and attitudes which today collectively destroy the lives of hundreds, and damage thousands more, and render quite impossible of achievement a truly great society. Specifically how does the Council function? First, the Council reaches out to the homophile community itself - out to all homosexuals in the local area. Some serve on the board of the council, others are simply members and attend its regular meetings. Monetary contributions are made to a National Legal Defense Fund - an independent corporation established to fight the long battles through the courts. The Council recently participated directly in a Minneapolis obscenity case which sought to deny homosexuals the right to receive male nude magazines sent through the mails as now permitted to heterosexuals. They fought hard and won. Homosexuals in despair or in need of a job or a place to live are provided the services of professionals or referred to competent sources. Special aid is given to street youths. San Francisco has many abandoned teenagers roaming its streets and wallowing in alcohol, drugs, and homosexual prostitution. The council supports a hospitality center and helps to rebuild their likes - steering them not away from homosexual orientation, but from its commercialization and exploitative applications. Second, the Council buttonholes fellow clergy in the religious community. The aim is to promote a re-examination of official church attitudes in these matters, and, if possible, active participation on the Council. Meetings are held with decision-making bodies of the churches. All of the denominations have been approached. Many have responded. Theologians, bishops, priests and lay leaders are consulted individually and in groups. Special seminars and retreats are scheduled from time to time. Within the congregations of several of the churches, discussion groups - both youth and adult - have started. And the same with student groups in the denominational colleges and the seminaries. In 1966 the Council sent two delegates all the way to London to participate in a joint U.S.-Great Britain interdenominational conference just on homosexuality and attended by noted researchers and some members of parliament. Simultaneously it help a 3-day theological seminar in San Francisco likewise dealing solely with homosexuality, and drew clergymen all the way from the Midwest on east to Massachusetts. And, of course, the work of the council has been documented and discussed in dozen widely circulated church magazines. Third, the council recruits professionals from other fields - anyone who can be put to work advising, counseling, testing homosexuals, or simply re-education their fellow specialists. The need for action and contribution of of time and services is made clear. But the Council also responds with help of its own. Research is underwritten. Subjects for testing are rounded up and presented, or contracted through the mails, and research guidance is provided throughout. In addition, the Council itself participates in other organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Friend's Service Committee. Fourth, the Council challenges public and corporate officials and community leaders. These are tough nuts to crack. Here progress can be agonizingly slow. Such men occupy highly sensitive positions. They are caught in a bind between minority sentiment or personal conscience and unrelenting public opinion or rigid official regulations. The army chaplain won't touch the problem with a ten foot pole. Naval authorities will show only sporadic interest in a few phases of the problem. Letters to the Civil Service and/or Defense Department are exercises in tail-chasing. But the Council has pursued all of these and many more. Page 4: There is, however, occasional progress. A task force for fair employment practices for homosexuals has been organized. Appeals to the police department and Alcoholic Beverage Commission have reduced abuses from these sources. The police have even detailed a public relations officer to maintain continuing liaison with the homophile community. Voter registration drives have been mounted. And along with this, a special candidates' night is held before each election with all candidates invited to attend and express their view. And, it is rumored, woe betide those who don't show up. This may be a bit overstated, but political efforts do seem ready to be having some modest effects. But, again, the Council responds with help of its own. It participates in a police relations campaign to build good will toward law enforcement officials. It participates in anti-venereal disease drives and educates the homophile community to use of caution. It cooperates with the Office of Economic opportunity in the latter's efforts to salvage and accommodate the lost youths of San Francisco. Finally, the Council confronts the general public. It advertises to one and all its varied purposes, activities, and achievements, and it seeks every opportunity for publicity to do this. The Council has been interviews and reported in Newsweek, Time, Look, The Nation, the Wall Street Journal, and gets frequent coverage in the San Francisco papers. It prints and distributes brochures to educate the public. Officers and board members appear on local radio and TV shows. It sends speakers out to high schools, colleges, university graduate seminars, the YMCA, the YWCA, the Junior Chambers of Commerce, women's clubs, and men's fraternal organizations. And, of course, it holds public forums and symposiums. A brief sampling of speakers shows a sociologist, a rabbi, a representative of the Playboy Foundation, a researcher from the famed Kinsey Institute, a public health official, and the executive director of London;s Albany Trust (an overseas homophile outfit.) Once in a while the Council will take to the streets in a physical show of support when the occasion suggests. In 1966 a National Protest Day Demonstration was staged on the steps of the city's Federal Building. That same year, after being first promised, and then later denied, a literature booth at the California State Fair in Sacramento, the Council stationed itself at the entrance to the fair grounds - a location far more strategic than any booth could have afforded - and did a brisk business that well expected earlier expectations. And, as usual, newspaper coverage of the entire affair was lavish. But amid this beehive of activity, certain landmark achievements beyond police relations and political influence stand out. First, in 1965 the Council wrote and published a document entitled "A Brief of Injustices." This document has stood virtually as a a manifesto for the homophile movement in America. It was the first major, comprehensive statement of grievances to come from the movement and gain respectable circulation. It listed in detail - one by one - all the principal areas of discrimination and abuse to which homosexuals were being subjected. And it called again and again for correction and reform. Second, through the Council's persistent efforts, the United Church of Christ became the first denomination to officially and publicly declare its commitment to the Council's work and to back this commitment with funds. Today the Council has the financial support of the United Church of Christ's Board of Homeland Ministry and Northern California Council of Churches, plus the Methodist's California Board of Christian Social Concerns and Glide Urban Foundation, plus the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of California, and, of course, the homophile organizations themselves. It has furthermore won the moral support of the National Council of Churches, the Young Democrats of San Francisco, and a variety of local and regional religious and professional groups. Third, the Council was influential in Protestant Episcopal Bishop Pike's 1965 anointment of a special study committee on homosexuality for the state diocese and his inclusion of homophile representatives on the committee. The committee's sympathetic recommendations for abolishment of abuse and encouragement of future study were adopted by the diocese in 1967. Fourth, the Council was influential in the 1967 Southern California American Civil Liberties Union official statement condemning state laws impinging on homosexual relationships. And fifth, two ministers of the Council, excelling in group coordinating and moderating capability filled the first two chairmanships covering the first four annual meetings of the North American Conference of Homophile organizations, and, by virtue of their patience and perseverance and the respect which they as individuals, commanded, these men were key Page 5: factors in holding the conferences together in these sensitive early stages long enough to allow them to take firm root and continue on as annual events. And indeed, the Council as a whole has stood to all homophile organizations everywhere as a symbol of an awakening social conscience of the future, and - a source of inspiration to better their own efforts and not lose heart in the face of public opinion as it exists today. Now, what about other similar councils around the country? It is difficult to report accurately on this because inter-organizational communications are still somewhat erratic, and, with some exceptions, one is frequently reduced to guesswork unless he does a lot of traveling. I have traveled a little, but the picture can change rapidly from year to year, and sometimes month to month. In 1965 representatives of the grandady San Francisco Council went to Los Angeles and met with other ministers from that city plus some from Dallas. As a result of this meeting two new Councils on Religion and the Homosexual were started. Of these, the Los Angeles group appears to have been more successful to date, and indeed probably ranks second only to the San Francisco enterprise in energy and scope of activities. It meets at least monthly. It operates a counseling center. It has held 3-day retreats and symposiums. It has appeared on local radio and TV. It was publishing its own newsletter for a while, and [illegible]. It has scheduled parties and outings. It even organized an educational field trip to all of the city's bars. And it has taken a great many public forums to which guest speakers are invited, and it makes and and sells duplicated recording tapes of the speeches. Here is a brief sampling of topics covered in the forums or in the monthly discussion meetings: Do homosexuals drink to much? Is "bar-hopping" bad? Must Male and Female homosexuals hate each other? Financial security for the homosexual. On being involved. Our out-moded sex laws. New trends in sex morality. What message does the church have for homosexuals? How homosexuals look at the bible. The homosexual's responsibility to the community. The Dallas Council, on the other hand, after two years of effort, does not appear to have gotten fully off the group as best as I can determine. I do not know why or what can be expected from it in the future. So much for these two. In Miami, in 1967, through the personal efforts of a local homophile leader, the Center for Dialogue - a missionary service center, Lutheran I believe, or perhaps interdenominational - took no problem and scheduled monthly discussion meetings for interested homosexuals. There were plans for setting up similar groups in Tampa and a dozen other Florida cities. I do not know if anything ever came of these, nor even if the Miami operation is still functioning. I have not had word from down there in a good many months. In Hartford, for several years, now, a subdivision of an interdenominational social service sub-committee, by the name of Project "H," has been meeting monthly. Ministers, sociologists, educators, lawyers and other disciplines are represented on it , and it is currently contemplating adding selected members of the homophile community. It offers counseling services as an extension of New York City's venerable George W. Henry Foundation, and it works at public education and legislative reform. It has organized public symposiums, and is now sponsoring a bi-weekly, partially self-sustaining discussion group for local homosexuals. Project "H" is solidly established and rapidly growing in scope and effectiveness. The future for it looks very bright indeed. Neither of the two foregoing organizations are formally identified as Councils on Religion and the Homosexual, as are the others in this report, and neither are directly affiliated with the national and regional networks of homophile organizations spanning the country. But both work to the same end and follow along essentially similar lines. There have been reports of a Council in Ottawa, Canada, and I have had one communication form the minister up there. But it has appeared to be an on-again, off-again effort, and its present existence, if any, remains unverified so far as I am able to tell. Councils were planned for Philadelphia and Chicago with the backing of homophile organizations in those cities, but to Page 6: to my knowledge neither ever really got going, and both I believe are now defunct. A Council did get off the ground in Washington DC a while ago. It lasted for a couple of years or so and then, I understand, evaporated. Off-hand, I know of no additional Councils current or of the past. But, as said, the picture can change very rapidly, and one is always hearing of this or that enterprise being planned or in the works. Why do some Councils succeed and others fail? I am not at all sure I know the answer. With one exception my direct experience with these organizations has been next to nil. I am not sure that it matters much. One always seems to have a different opinion as to why these things happen. I do, of course, hear reports from time to time - about organizations that have failed. I can never know whether they have substance or not. I have heard, for example, that the homophile representatives to a Council were belligerent, or domineering, or defensive beyond what might reasonably be expected. Or that the ministers were apathetic, skeptical, or uncommitted - or perhaps overly committed to the past. Maybe so. Maybe not. I will hazard a guess, however, and suggest that Councils fail because the initial group is simply weak in leadership and organizing capability, and because no effort is made to function systematically with planned and varied programs relevant to the purpose but of equal interest to ministers and homosexuals. Such programs under strong leadership are the best cure for belligerence, and apathy, and lack of commitment. I never knew an organization of any kind to fail that had them. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Report on the Councils on Religion and the Homosexual, Jan. 26, 1969, by Foster Gunnison, Jr. Description An account of the resource Organization Collection Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Archive of LGBT History</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a05f13c55d3534adf7bfdeca0cbe7fff.mp3 9385d457543595155444a280c3074ce1 Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CRH Leader Chuck Lewis Describes the Organization of the Symposia Description An account of the resource Taped interview with James Waller on October 2, 1994. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/91c31bf1167a552d45fbba5aa3be5060.mp3 730da1446a2f655d6522c3847d4159ff Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CRH Leader Chuck Lewis Relates the Emergence of Feminist Perspectives in the Symposia Description An account of the resource Taped interview with James Waller on October 2, 1994. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ef26b4626c7854ad4abe284da51bb83e.mp3 fd1a1fd5d27d0c6923409d4413f72ffa Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CRH Leader Chuck Lewis Recounts the Multi-Media Presentation on Sexuality That Was Part of the Symposium Description An account of the resource Taped interview with James Waller on October 2, 1994. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/866d6ecf7d80a5b60db88d836388370f.mp3 02986e674d9637bf7bb9d7bc9f19d44a Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rev. Chuck Lewis Describes the Press Conference, Trials and Impact Upon Police and Homosexual Communities Description An account of the resource Taped interview with James Waller on October 2, 1994. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/19d2f581d55d67fdaf653f8ca45794c8.mp3 8ce86762e672a11844032a3d0bc1f949 Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CRH Leader Chuck Lewis Describes Police Raid and Arrests Description An account of the resource Taped interview with James Waller on October 2, 1994. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/830eac69e8f06f27caa942cf8a588984.mp3 52ebcd753993ca7dd3191bcb2ee50e06 Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound The dance was actually held on the evening of January 1, 1965, New Year's Day eve, and was held at California Hall. My involvement was because I was a member of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, the original constituting board. I had been with our coordinator, our director Parrish Light[?], from the North Beach Mission where I was the pastor, and we had been to dinner and at ten o'clock that night we intended to go to the dance. The dance actually began at nine o'clock. As I understand it at 9:15 a squad of police offers came in to make a fire inspection. At 9:45 another squad of officers came in to make a liquor license inspection. Prior to this, Ted and Clay had gone down to talk to the chief of police to essentially announce to him that there would be a dance attended by at least five hundred gay men and lesbians, at least ten clergy, their wives, spouses, girlfriends, whoever. And when they got to the police department they were instead directed to the vice squad, and the vice squad asked the questions such as "I see you're a married man by the ring on your finger. What does your wife think of this? What does the Bible have to say about this, pastor?" They never did get the chance to see the chief of police. Two weeks before the dance was actually held they were meeting in a storefront somewhere in the Tenderloin, as I understand, and two vice squad officers came in. Obviously they had been either followed or they were under surveillance. And they were holding their last meeting about the dance and the two vice squad officers said if this dance is held, anyone who shows up in drag on the street will be arrested. I think the threat here was the fact that, for the first time in history, five hundred gay men, openly identified gay men and lesbians, were going to be in one spot. And the real threat came from the ten clergy who were there, because it looked as though the church was approving this dance as well. And this just blew the police department right out of the water, which at that time had a heavy Roman-Catholic background. The result was that they did come to an understanding with the police department that as long as people drove to the front of California Hall, got out of a limousine or car, went directly up the stairs and into the dance, no-one would be arrested, even if they were in drag. But anyone on the street would still be arrested. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CRH Leader Chuck Lewis Describes Preparations for the Dance Description An account of the resource Taped interview with James Waller on October 2, 1994. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/7ab3391b754947692e18e0d59c4896d2.mp3 d4d48b9cb91385bd18c7f7ecb09aa7a2 Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Del Martin Introduces Ted McIlvenna and the Founding of CRH in 1965 Audio Recording Description An account of the resource From videorecording of Gay & Lesbian (now GLBT) Historical Society 9th annual dinner on October 14, 1998; produced by Paul Gabriel. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.glbthistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLBT Historical Society</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/0057fbd9349e2f38366e60792ff81b27.mp3 88e0fa612fa4b4d3017fb554525ba5ac Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound One night, which changed everything for me, I got a call and the call was come to this hotel, which was a real fancy hotel. And I went there and um [sighs] with Hal Call who had called me to come and see this. "I want to show you something." Here were two gay guys with their genitals kicked in, in the hotel room. And I said well let's get them to the hospital. I called Presbyterian, and Prebyterian wouldn't take them. And I called, I said well let's get police in here. We can't get the police in here, because the police did the kicking. I said what in hell is going on? They, the medical community won't take them, the police won't deal with it. Well let's get a photographer. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ted McIlvenna Talks About Seeing Gay Men Battered by Police Description An account of the resource Taped interview with Mark Bowman on January 4, 2005. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/625b7c64b63cc87f476c008e8ba0317c.pdf e7c1a20c5eaf9b06e932d4c53abc942c Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document God and the Homosexual To Moses, homosexuality was an "abomination." To St. Paul, it was a "dishonorable passion." Indeed, throughout the Bible, sexual deviation of any sort is condemned as unnatural, unmanly and ungodly. Even so, a group of Protestant ministers in San Francisco thinks the churches ought to drop their strictures against homosexuals and welcome them into the fellowship of the heterosexual faithful. Organized two years ago as the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, some 50 clergymen–plus leaders of four Bay Area homophile societies–are trying to overcome what CRH president Dr. Clarence A. Colwell of the United Church of Christ calls the Bible's "heterosexual bias." Colwell argues that if God accepts every human being as a person, regardless of sexual proclivity, the church can do no less. In fact, insists Methodist pastor Ted McIlvenna, 34-year-old founder of the CRH, clergymen working with the homophile community "have discovered that there isn't all that much difference between the way most of the hetero- and homo-sexuals live." Council clergymen have come to know every side of the homosexual world: from the dimly lit "gay" bars where the homosexual "queens" are pampered and protect by their male courts, to the married deviates who drive in from the suburbs at night for a casual affair. And, they have learned to feel for themselves something of the fear of exposure that haunts every homosexual. When, for example, a dozen ministers and their wives attended a large New Year's Day party given by homosexuals and lesbians to raise funds for the CRH, police greeted them with photographers who snapped pictures of everyone present. More recently, the ministers have tried to bring young male prostitutes into the church. Working with the Glide Foundation, a private Methodist philanthropy in San Francisco, they have even sponsored gay Coke dances where the boys can dance with each other to jukebox music. 'Closet Queens': Not surprisingly, such efforts to bring homosexuals within the orbit of church life have drawn gasps of disapproval from less venturesome churchmen. Episcopal vicar Robert W. Cromey, for instance, has been severely criticized by members of the diocesan council of California for "overidentifying" with the homosexuals' problems. In turn, Cromey charges that some of sharpest critics "closet queens"–that is, homosexuals living ostensibly heterosexual lives who fear discovery. Cromey says, in fact, that all Bay Area schools would have to close down immediately if all homosexuals currently working in the school systems were discovered and–in keeping with state law–dismissed. Much of the council's efforts are aimed at gaining full civil rights for homosexuals, including state laws permitting voluntary sexual acts between adults in private. (Currently, only Illinois allows such sexual freedom.) Beyond that, Cromey and his colleagues believe the homosexual should be allowed to take his normal role in church functions–in the choir, the vestry, church schools, social-action committees and study groups. "Homosexuals want to be able to go into a church and be themselves," argues Phyllis Lyon, CRH vice president and former officer of the Daughters of Bilitis, a national organization for lesbians. "They don't want to feel that they'll have to leave if they drop their guard." 'Pastoral Problem': Naturally, most Bay Area clergymen are rather guarded themselves about endorsing such goals. Thus far, the United Church of Christ is the only denomination to endorse the council officially, thought the Methodists are deeply involved through the Glide Urban Center. A few Lutherans and Baptists are council members, and later this month Cromey and other Episcopalians will ask officials of the California diocese to recognize the CRH as an "official arm of the church." But even among CRH advocates, there is disagreement as to how far the church should go in accepting homosexuals. Episcopal Bishop C. Kilmer Myers of California, for instance, supports CRH efforts to free homosexuals from police harassment and oppressive laws but he does not feel that they can maintain healthy relationships like heterosexuals. For the church, Myers believes, "homosexuality is essentially a pastoral problem dealing with brokenness in humanity the same as many other moral maladies." But the aggressive Cromey, father of three children, wants to take the church beyond conventional moral judgments. "The sex act," he argues, "is morally neutral. I also believe that two people of the same sex can express love and deepen that love by sexual intercourse." Furthermore, he concludes, in a statement that would surely redden the face of St. Paul, "I say that if two people of the same sex have a loving, responsible relationship with each other, they have an obligation to express that love in whatever way they deem appropriate." Talking Back The Roman Catholic Church in France, known for centuries as the Vatican's "eldest daughter," doesn't hesitate to talk back to the mother church. Typical of this often maverick behavior of the French hierarchy was a spirited letter to Rome last week criticizing Vatican heresy-hunters. The bishops' 4,000-word missive was written in reply to a query last summer from ultraconservative Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani in which the Vatican's theological watchdog warned of "urgent doctrinal problems" affecting the church (Newsweek, Sept. 19, 1966). Ottaviani specifically listed ten points of doctrine, ranging from the dual nature of Christ to the inspiration of the Bible, and invited the world's bishops to examine–and presumably condemn–contemporary efforts to reinterpret them. Instead, the French bishops refused to discuss Ottaviani's list of "audacious opinions" and warned the Italian prelate against using church authority to repress theological speculation or paralyze research. On the contrary, they argued, the extraordinary evolution, of contemporary life and thought has necessarily elicited "adventurous responses" from theologians which the hierarchy should try to remedy, not condemn. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Article Featuring CRH in <i>Newsweek</i> Magazine Description An account of the resource Copyright 1964 by <i>Newsweek, Inc.</i> Reprinted by permission from <i>Newsweek</i>, February 13, 1967, page 63. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c7f812f0f15706dcb1628e6a9417c187.pdf eedee6c069ff93226880057eb7ee739a Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: CONSULTATION on THE CHURCH, SOCIETY and the HOMOSEXUAL 9-11th AUGUST, 1966 . The Mostyn Hotel Portman Street London, W.1 Page 2: Tuesday, 9th August 10.00 a.m. Opening Session and Welcome: The Rev. Ted Mcllvenna Director of Project Development, National Young Adult Project (U.S.) 10.15 a.m. Paper and discussion: ''Demythologising the Homosexual'' Dr. A. A. Gross. Executive Director, The George W. Henry Foundation, New York 1.00 p.m. Lunch 2.15 p.m. Paper and discussion: ''The Sociological Perspective on Homosexuality'' Dr. John Gagnon Institute of Sex Research, University of Indiana 7.00 p.m. Dinner 8.15 p.m. Paper and discussion: ''Towards a Quaker View of Sex-Three Years Later'' Keith Wedmore, M.A., LL.B. (Joint Author, ''Towards a Quaker View of Sex'') Wednesday, 10th August 10.00 a.m. Paper and discussion: ''The Churches' Responsibility Towards the Homosexual'' Canon Douglas Rhymes Librarian of Southwark Cathedral (12.45-2.15 p.m. Lunchtime free) 2.15 p.m. Paper and discussion: ''The Homosexual's Experience of the Churches'' Donald Lucas Director, Council on Religion and the Homosexual. Executive Secretary, San Francisco Mattachine Society ( Dinner time free) 8.00 p.m. Films introduced by Arthur Lomas Secretary, World Council of Christian Education (Visual Aids Department) Thursday, 11th August 10.00 a.m. Paper and discussion: ''The Social Worker and the Homosexual'' Douglas Gibson Secretary, Central Council of Probation Committees for England and Wales. A former Prison Governor and Deputy Director, Central After Care 1:00 p.m. Lunch 2:15 p.m. Reactions to the Consultation: (1) Berkely Hathorne President, American Association of Pastoral Counselling (2) The Rev. Robert Beattie Industrial Chaplain, Associated Electrical Industries Ltd. (3) The Rt. Rev. Monsignor Canon G. A. Tomlinson Administrator, Westminster Cathedral (4) The Rev. Ted Mcllvenna (5) Antony Grey Secretary, The Albany Trust 5.00 p.m. Closing Session . Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Agenda of the London Consultation in which Ted McIlvenna and Don Lucas Were Presenters Description An account of the resource Donald S. Lucas Papers. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.glbthistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLBT Historical Society</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f34b1a42290c596b650b39b44c3ec190.pdf 0ed85b61e903fa5ad0b206fb61775c22 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: Concern Number One July 1966 Newsletter of the Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile Page 2: To open the avenues of communication and understanding between churchmen and homophiles; To investigate and implement ways for meeting the spiritual needs and social responsibilities of homophiles; To encourage more satisfactory climate of opinion within the community on broad matters of sex and morals; To seek just social treatment of the homophile community. -- statement of general purposes, SCCRH Articles of Incorporation On June 1, 1965, at the invitation of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual of San Francisco, twenty persons met in the Westchester YMCA for an all-day session. Approximately half were from San Francisco and half from Los Angeles, the number of clergymen and representatives of homophile organizations also being in the same proportion. During the morning, the Rev. Ted McIlvenna of San Francisco discussed the broad social changes now affecting all levels of American Society, pointing out that in consequence, a "sexual revolution" was forcing the churches to reexamine their traditional attitudes toward all sexual matters, including male and female homosexuality. The churches, he said, were now coming to see that a new ethic was needed to answer the problems of the ever-increasing number of city dwellers, and particularly the large proportion of single men and women who virtually become lost in our large cities. The CRH was set up in the Bay Area to start grappling with the complex questions facing this sector of the population, and it was through an interdemoninational conference held there on the problems of ''Young Adults in Metropolis" that most of the Los Angeles ministers had been introduced to the homosexual question. After lunch, Donald Lucas of the Mattachine Society, of San Francisco, described the origin of the Council there and its operations. Los Angeles Attorney Herbert Selwyn discussed the California laws applicable to homosexual acts, after which the San Franciscans told the Los Angeles group that they were on their own if they wished to establish a similar Council in Southern California. They did so wish, and an ad hoc committee, composed of the Revs. Alex Smith and Ron Ohlson, as well as Sten Russell of the Daughters of Bilitis and W. Dorr Legg of ONE, Inc., was chosen to arrange for the next meeting. Over twenty meetings have been held since that date, in members' homes, in ONE's offices, and in the First Methodist Churches of Glendale and Los Angeles, as well as an inspiring weekend Retreat attended by thirty ministers and homophiles at the Presbyterian Camp Grounds at Pacific Palisades. Most of these meetings have been devoted to careful efforts to lay a sound organizational basis, and to acquaing ministers and homophiles with one another's problems and ways of thinking. Page 3: Ministerial representation on the Council has so far been largely limited to United Church of Christ, Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian clergymen, not from any intention to so limit participation. For awhile, members of ONE, Inc., carried most of the homophile side, but participation has now expanded to members of eight local organizations and publications. The first ten months were on a provisional -- "organizing committee" - - basis. In April, 1966, the newly named SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNCIL ON RELIGION AND THE HOMOPHILE was "christened" at Attorney Selwyn' s office when the five original Directors (the Revs. Alex Smith, Kenneth Wahrenbrock and Marjorie Likins, along with W. Dorr Legg of ONE and James Kepner of PURSUIT magazine) signed the Articles of Incorporation. A set of By-Laws was adopted by the Board in May and ratified (with several minor changes proposed) at the first official membership meeting, held at Glendale First Methodist, June 8, 1966, one year and a week after the first Los Angeles gathering. It had been an exciting year -- a year of exploration, of defining the problem areas, of getting acquainted, and, on both sides, of shedding preconceptions. Homophiles who came to the group thinking of all clergymen as Puritanic thunderers, or as oozing piety, had their eyes opened, just as did ministers who had stereotyped and unflattering notions about homosexuals. It was a year of spiritual growth for all concerned, and a year in which Council representatives began to present the concerns of the Council to other organizations, both homophile and religious. We can now look forward to moving solidly, responsibly and with true concern toward the purposes stated in our Articles of Incorporation, as quoted at the head of this brief historic sketch. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the SC-CRH, open to persons interested in the work of the Council, will be held in the Asbury Room of the First Methodist Church, Glendale, 134 N. Kenwood St., at 7 :30 p.m., Wednesday, July 13. The Rev. Dr. Marjorie Likins will discuss recent developments in the Churches which have made such a Council possible. ORIENTATION PROGRAM Because many new clergymen coming to Council meetings for the first time may have only slight acquaintance with the problems and terminology of homosexuals, and because many homophiles may be equally uninformed about the Churches today, an orientation program has been set up under the leadership of Chuck Taylor, in order to bring newcomers up to date, so that, whatever our individual differences of viewpoint, we may each enter into dialogue with a minimum store of information about our common areas of concern. Rather than trying to impose a "Council viewpoint", the Orientation sessions should acquaint persons coming from either "side" with the terminology, general problems and attitudes of the other side. Thus we hope that those who have been participating for some time can move beyond the repetitious sorts of questions which are necessarily of primary concern to newcomers. Page 4: OTHER COMMITTEES MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: Chairman, Dr. Marjorie Likins. Prospective Members to be routed in this direction. COUNSELING COMMITTEE: Chairman, the Rev. Ron Ohlson. Will investigate and implement methods for counseling disturbed homophiles, and of training such counselors. PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE: Chairman, James Kepner, currently responsible for this newsletter, this committee plans various publications aimed at explaining the general work of the Council, a major project being a general descriptive booklet. PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Chairman, the Rev. Kenneth Barta. To plan programs for the public meetings, and investigate general programmatic directions for the work of the Council. FINANCE COMMITTEE: Chairman, W. Dorr Legg. With the job of raising funds to pay for all the rest, this committee is certainly open to suggestions. Members interested in working with any committee are invited to contact the chairman concerned. And we are open to suggestions as to the need for additional committees. Several members have asked about books which might be recommended for a general understanding of homosexuality. The following list was prepared by The BAKER MEMORIAL LIBRARY of ONE, Inc. Anthropology: Ford, C. S., + Beach, F.A., PATTERNS OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, 1951 Biology: Kinsey, A. C., SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE, 1948 FEMALE, 1953 History: Garde, N. I., JONATHAN TO GIDE, 1964 Lewinsohn, R. A., A HISTORY OF SEXUAL CUSTOMS, 1958 Licht, H., SEXUAL CUSTOMS IN ANCIENT GREECE, 1931 Taylor, A. R., SEX IN HISTORY, 1954 Law: Drummond, I., THE SEX PARADOX, 1953 Duke University Law Review, SEX OFFENSES, 1960 Ploscowe, M., SEX AND THE LAW, 1962 Rees, T., THEY STAND APART, 1955 Wildeblood, P., AGAINST THE LAW, 1955 Page 5: Literature: Foster, J. H., SEX VARIANT WOMEN IN LITERATURE. 1956 Philosophy: Benson, R. O. D., IN DEFENSE OF HOMOSEXUALITY, 1965 Gide, Andre, CORYDON, 1911 Guyon, R., THE ETHICS OF SEXUAL ACTS, 1930 Plato, The SYMPOSIUM Thielicke, H., THE ETHICS OF SEX, 1965 Psychology: Ellis, H., THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, 1924 Marmor, J., SEXUAL INVERSION, 1965 Ruitenbeek, H. M., THE PROBLEMS OF HOMOSEXUALITY, 1963 Religion: Bailey, D.S., HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION, 1955 Buckley, M. J., MORALITY AND THE HOMOSEXUAL, 1959 Cole, W. J., SEX AND LOVE IN THE BIBLE, 1959 Wood, R.W., CHRIST AND THE HOMOSEXUAL, 1960 Sociology: Cory, D. W., THE HOMOSEXUAL IN AMERICA, 1951 Westwood, G. , A MINORITY, 1960 The above selection represents a carefully balanced sampling of viewpoints, which has deliberately avoided sensationalism and strong partisanship·. No attempt has been made to include periodicals, although a large number of useful discussions are to be found there. A separate bibliography of nearly 100 articles on religion and the homosexual, as published in ONE Magazine and ONE Institute Quarterly is available. Ed. Note: We might suggest two additions to the above list: the now famous report by a group of English Friends, TOWARD A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX, 1963, and THE CONSENTING ADULT HOMOSEXUAL AND THE LAW: An Empirical Study of Enforcement and Administration in Los Angeles County, UCLA Law Review, March 1966. HOMOSEXUAL - OR HOMOPHILE ? In place of the familiar term, ''Homosexual", (the "homo" part being from the Greek for "the same", not the Latin, "man) the Council has chosen to use in its name, the term, ''Homophile", almost but not entirely synonymous. Because we shall make some use of both terms, we pre-print an explanation from the second issue of PURSUIT: "To avoid the monotony of too-frequent use of the same term, we shall oscillate between 'homosexual' and the etymologically preferred synonym, 'homophile,' which puts the emphasis on love and friendship, rather than on sex. Sex is only a part of the attraction between persons. To put the sexual component in perspective is not to denigrate it, but to imply that all homophile feelings are merely sexual seems to us to cheapen such relationships. Page 6: "Clearly, not all homophiles are homosexuals, nor all homosexuals homophiles, which is to say that one may have sex without love, or love without sex. Recently, the East Coast Homophile Organizations (a confederacy of Mattachine, Bilitis and other groups on the Atlantic Seaboard) resolved to restrict the term 'homophile' to adjectival usage, defining the collective effort to seek justice and understanding for homosexuals, as in 'homophile magazines' and 'homophile organizations' and the 'Homophile Movement.' Since the well-established and more inclusive usage of the term also allows speaking of homophile persons (as being sometimes distinct from homosexual persons -- a distinction we think worthwhile) we shall not adopt ECHO' s terminological limitation, nor that of the late, excellent Dr. Kinsey that the term 'homosexual' never be used to describe persons, only acts.'' ODYSSEY At the June 8 meeting of the SC-CRH, Council co-chairman W. Dorr Legg briefly reported his impressions of some current religious developments in the United States and in Europe as seen during a five-week trip from which he had just returned. He stated his belief that the Southern California Council and the Council on Religion and the Homosexual of San Francisco were as of that date the only two formally incorporated such organizations existing anywhere, but referred to groups in Washington, D. C. and in Ottawa, Canada, with whose exact status he was not fully acquainted. Attempts were being made, he reported, to launch Council-type activities in New York City and in Chicago, a two-day consultation between clergymen and representatives of homophile organizations having already been scheduled for June 10 and 11 in the latter city. In Europe, relationships between homophile organizations and the churches vary widely from country to country, he reported. In Switzerland, home of the world's oldest homophile group, virtually no contacts had been made, or attempted, between homophiles and the churches. In Western Germany, a similar situation prevails. Legal sanctions against homosexuals, instituted during Hitler's regime, have been of extreme severity during the past thirty years, making concerted action of any sort extremely hazardous for Germans. In Denmark, quite a different situation was found. Having as it does a State Church (Lutheran) and a strongly secular society, both of the principal homophile organizations in that country indicated a lack of interest in fostering contacts with religious bodies or leaders. The feeling seemed to be that the Church was an institution of historical interest and to be respected as such, but not one from which social gains might be expected. In Holland, home of the world's largest homophile organization, things are very different. The country is divided numerically almost equally between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Both of these religious bodies have participated actively in many types of social reform developments, including interest in and concern for the welfare of homosexual men and women. One way in which such interest has been demonstrated is in the maintenance in Amsterdam during the past few years of Protestant and Catholic counseling centers organized especially for homosexuals. These are staffed by clergy and psychiatrists and open during regular hours. Reports of their work have been rather widely published and favorably received. Page 7: Contacts between the homophile organization and religious bodies seems to have been largely informal in France. Predominantly Roman Catholic in its history, French urban society appears to be nearly as secular as that of Denmark. Little interest in or expectation of closer association between homophiles and the Church was noted. In England, the Church, on the other hand, has shown marked concern on the part of many of its officials for the problems raised by the extreme severity of the legal sanctions against homosexuals prevailing there. Various high Church officials, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, have come out strongly in favor of reform of the oppressive laws. So long as these continue in force, it has been impossible to have any organized activities for the male homosexual in Britain. Hence, Church of England direct contacts with them have been mainly limited to instances when individual homosexuals have come to individual clergymen or other church authorities within their own parishes. In summary, it would be quite easy to conclt1de that a concept such as the coming together of religious officials and persons from organized homophile groups may for some time to come be an American phenomenon solely, save for the Dutch exception. NEWS THOUGH it has been frequently reported that England has recently "legalized'' homosexuality, this unfortunately is not yet the case. A government commission, appointed in 1954 under Sir John Wolfenden, then Chancellor or Reading University, brought in a report in 1957 recommending that homosexual acts performed in private by consenting adults should no longer be punished by law. Similar reports by the Church of England and British Catholics insisted that that while such acts might still be considered sinful, they were properly matters of conscience, not of law. England's Quakers went farther, insisting that sex was a proper part of a love relationship, and not merely to be considered as a tool of procreation, therefore any such sexual activity could be judged moral or immoral only on the basis of the intrinsic quality of the relationship between the parties concerned. Thus homosexual relationships per se could be as good or as bad as other relationships. In the last Parliamentary session, as most American papers reported, both houses did approve the proposed reform bill, presented in Lords by the Earl of Arran and in Commons by Mr Humphrey Berkeley. But although both houses approved the matter twice by heavy majorities, it was not actually passed, for lack of a formally required "third reading" -- so the issue died when Parliament adjourned this Spring for elections. Now the whole process needs repeating, though on the motion again of Lord Arran, a conservative peer and a peppery news columnist, Lords has again passed a new ''second reading" by vote of 70 to 29. Though opponents and proponents of the reform are found in each party, and neither party wishes to claim sponsorship, the return of a heavy labor majority was interpreted by some as weakening the reform's chances. It is widely felt that Commons may not discuss the matter in this session, though the new Home Secretary expressed his personal approval. But it is generally agreed that in time, the reform will come, and 63% of the populace is said to support it. Meanwhile, for those who get caught, punishments remain severe, and even when the reform passes, the new law will retain astonishing areas of severity. In order to have any real chance for reform, proponents have t1nanimously (except for the Quakers) agreed that all homo- Page 8: sexuality is a terrible and tragic condition, which still requires severe legal restraints in all cases not involving private consensual adult acts. In time, they may pay a dear price for this strategic concession to prejudice. A LANDMARK report published in the March 66 UCLA LAW REVIEW has recommended major reforms in the several California laws penalizing homosexual behavior. In a foreword to the 189-page study, fat with footnotes, charts and appendices, State Supreme Court Justice (and former Calif. Atty. General) Stanley Mosk decried "the punitive and preventive activities of law enforcement" in this area, and expressed hope for "modificatio11 of penal statutes... in the foreseeable future." The reforms "advocated by the American Law Institute and the Wolfenden Committee cannot be analyzed meaningfully in the absence of data concerning enforcement and judicial practices under existing statutes." Most discussions on moral legislation have ignored the disparity between the law revealed in penal statutes and appellate decisions, and the law expressed in police and trial practice. "This Project attempts to provide some of the missing data. . . by reporting the results of an empirical study, conducted in the county of Los Angeles, of the enforcement and administration of the sections of the California Penal Code regulating adult homosexual behavior." The Project, result of 14 months of intensive study by a group of top UCLA law students, examined the manner in which unspecific or contradictory laws permit the exercise of individual prejudices in enforcement, with detailed study of methods used by the police to effect arrests, and of the legality of some of those methods. It would require a different sort of study -- examining the assumptions and value judgements underlying such legislation -- to judge the desirability of abolishing such moral legislation. An empirical study of the daily enforcement of morals legislation can determine neither the propriety of the use of criminal law to regulate sexual morality, nor the relative validity of competing philosophies as to the law's purpose, nor whether homosexual behavior is intrinsically harmful. It was felt that the study could evaluate the present law's effectiveness at regulating private morality. After detailed analysis of several hundred felony and misdemeanor cases, from police methods to post-conviction disposition, the Project' s authors dispaired of determining the law's deterrent effect, though many judges feel that the law does deter acts in public. Almost all the authorities consulted rejected the contention that homosexuals are a menace to society in general or to children in particular. "This Project, taking the position that the deviant nature of sexual conduct, alone, does not warrant the imposition of criminal sanctions, concludes that only public displays of consensual homosexuality should be the legitimate concern of the criminal law" -- and those to be punished as nuisances, not as heinous crimes. They proposed replacing the several currently applicable Code sections with a single misdemeanor statute on specific sexual acts or solicitations (homosexual or heterosexual) which risk offending public decency, to be penalized generally by fines or probation, without registration. They recommended abandoning police decoys, entrapment and most clandestine police observation in toilets, but continuing the use of abatement and licensing provisions so as to encourage bar owners to prevent offensive acts on their premises. While some homophiles will wish the Project had been less cautious, or less inclined to accept, apparently, the view that homosexual behavior does require legal harassment this publication ranks as one of the major documents in the movement toward equitable Page 9: legal treatment of homophiles. THE Board for Homeland Ministries of the United Church of Christ, and the Northern California Conference of that denomination have each voted to contribute $1500 to the work of San Francisco's COUNCIL ON RELIGION AND THE HOMOSEXUAL. Our local treasury has not as yet at any time exceeded $25... IN A group that has to date been remarkable for the steadiness of its membership, we regret the loss of active participation by the Rev. Lynn Jondahl, who has been promoted to important work in another part of the country. Good luck, Lynn. Two new homophile organizations recently formed in Los Angeles have been welcomed to the Council. Sparked by girls from Manhattan Beach, the Daughters of Bilitis, after long dormancy, now has a Los Angeles chapter again. P.O. Box 727, Manhattan Beach, Cal. 90266. PRIDE, an all-male group, (P. 0. Box 46545, L.A. 90046) has been formed with a social activities, community service and legal defense program resembling somewhat that of the Society for Individual Rights in San Francisco. AT suggestion of the CRH up north, several homophile organizations sponsored various forms of protest on Armed Services day, May 21, against the exclusion of homosexuals from the armed forces. Though our Council here did not participate, our Chairman did join in a 13-car motorcade which paraded silently along several of Los Angeles' typically deserted streets. As a result of the motorcade, TANGENTS editor Don Slater and Council members Harry Hay and John Burnside made several television and radio appearances which ably got the message across to a larger audience. In San Francisco, 300 persons gathered in front of the Federal Building to hear several clergymen (Rev. A. Cecil Williams, Glide Methodist Foundation; Rev. Robt. Cromey, St. Aidan's Episcopal; Rev. Charles Lewis, North Beach Mission) speak in favor of the right of homosexuals freely and openly to serve their country. TELEVISION access continued to open, as the Rev. Ron Ohlson of the SC-CRH and your editor, James Kepner joined one of the editors of the UCLA Law Report, a psychologist and a homosexual identified only as ''Will", in a brief round on the subject on Louis Lomax generally controversial show on KTTV. This will be continued, it is expected, with a smaller cast but more time, about midnight, July 10, Channel 11. YMCA Le ad er s, meeting in L.A. late in June, discussed the Y's role in helping a new generation of young adults in the city,. different from any previous generation, many (such as LSD users, and homosexuals) being termed "psychological dropouts," looking for new value systems, instead of either simply rejecting or accepting the old views of God, life and man. In discussions of changing morality, the Y leaders generally agreed that the Y itself is changing, ecumenical now rather than sectarian, and much more oriented to socio-economic thinking - - but trying to get at the real social issues of contemporary urban life. Certainly, few organizations are better equipped to directly confront the problems of young homophiles. The illustration on the cover of this newsletter is reprinted by permission from the June 1954 issue of ONE Magazine, and marked the first issue of a homophile publication devoted to considering the religious needs of homophiles. CONCERN, # 1, published monthly by the Southern California COUNCIL on RELIGION and the HOMOPHILE. Chairman, the Rev. Alex Smith, 813 S. Hope, Los Angeles 90017 Secretary, the Rev. Kenneth Wahrenbrock, 134 N. Kenwood, Glendale, Calif. Editor, James Kepner, 2141 Baxter St., Los Angeles 90039. Price: 10¢ plus postage if needed. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource First Issue of <i>Concern</i>, Newsletter of the Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile, July 1966 Description An account of the resource Collection 074, Dignity New York, Inc. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Archive of LGBT History</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f05983d9ce5a2b84b17ab0cae9f14048.pdf 1ffcf65d2a918117bfec7608b58b18b6 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 5020 Cathedral Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016 March 2, 1966 Miss Del Martin The Council on Religion and the Homosexual 330 Ellis Street San Francisco, California 94102 Dear Del: In the course of a conversation, one evening, in Kansas City, you asked what the purposes and goals for the Washington Area Council on Religion and the Homosexual area. In order to supply you with a complete answer, I am enclosing some background material having to do both with out Council, and with the MSW Committee on Religious Concerns, the activities of which preceded, and gave rise to the Council. If you read the material in the order in which I have numbered it, I think that you may get some insight into our thinking — which, I believe, is not really significantly different from yours (except only that, since our clergymen are seemingly, more conservative than yours, we are operating as a closed-membership group, as the enclosed draft-constitution indicates). Any comments which you have would be appreciated. Our Council's address, incidentally, is: The Washington Area Council on Religion and the Homosexual Post Office Box 5618 Washington D.C. 20016 As soon as I have "picked up all the threads again, after my 10 days away from Washington, in connection with the KC meeting, I will proceed to get together the material we discussed, in regard to the military — although there won't be that much, since the Services have been notable for their nearly (but not quite) unbroken silence. Please keep me (personally) closely posted on all developments in regard to the May 21st rally and released subjects — and I will, of course, return the favor. Thank you. Sincerely, Franklin E Kameny Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter Reporting on CRH in Washington, D.C. Description An account of the resource Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin Papers. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.glbthistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLBT Historical Society</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/33b8197f62e6ecef84405b779fa96105.pdf 94a7bc5b25c2da9f42e14ebbbe2f8a77 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Post Office Box 471, Postal Station B, Ottawa 4, Ontario. May 28, 1965 Bulletin!!!!!!! Bulletin!!!!! As of May 26th, 1965 the Committee on Social Hygiene was officially disbanded. As a result of recent talks with various members of the Clergy, the Canadian Council on Religion and the Homosexual has been formed. The results of the elections were as follows: Reverend Philip Rowswell, Chairman Garrfield D. Nichol, Secretary Aurele J. Leabeau, Treasurer Membership is open to anyone over the age of twenty-one irregardless of sexual orientation. The membership fee set by the general meeting is $5.00 per annum. All inquiries are invited. Please address all correspondence care of: The Secretary, Canadian Council on Religion and the Homosexual P.O. Box 741, Postal Station B, Ottawa 4, Ontario. The next general meeting will be held June 16th, 8:00 p.m. at St. George's Church, Metcalfe at Gloucester. This invitation is extended to all interested persons. Garrfield D. Nichol Secretary Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter Reporting the Formation of the Canadian Council on Religion and the Homosexual Description An account of the resource Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin Papers. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.glbthistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLBT Historical Society</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c3c06d04067d165b459abef401a7af15.pdf e4a36403b7ba6a526f230671aabd835d Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The City's Homosexuals--And Police By Scott Thurber A group of San Francisco ministers who have taken a long, close look at the city's "Gay" world came up with some trenchant conclusions yesterday. The lot of the homosexual, they report, is a sorry one indeed. The ministers' lengthy report damns public attitudes toward homosexuals, and "unenforceable laws" affecting them - but it is most truculent in dealing with the police. The report charges that undercover policemen invade generally decorous "gay" bars and use techniques of "entrapment and enticement" in an effort to get arrests. "It seems to us the first duty of police is to prevent crime, not to provoke it for the sole purpose of its prosecution and punishment," the ministers declare. In broad terms, the council on Religion and Homosexual's "Brief of social, legal and economic oppression of a minority group, based not on fact and scientific analysis but rather on taboo and fear." Specifically the report charges that: - Homosexuals are ostracized socially to the extent that many of them even refuse to fight for their legal rights in court because they fear public exposure as homosexuals. - They are prosecuted under laws which can't be enforced equitably. The laws prohibiting specific sexual acts apply to heterosexual contacts too, the ministers say–but "the adult homosexual bears the brunt of a sporadic and prejudicial enforcement of such laws..." - Homosexuals are subjected to discriminatory employment practices "based on the unfounded belief of employers that homosexuals are unstable or are untrustworthy." AIM The Council on Religion and the Homosexual was formed last year to promote "dialogues" between homosexuals and the community at large—in the interests of increased mutual understanding. The Council says its intensive study has convinced it that, contrary to public opinion, homosexuals are not "abnormal, neurotic, dangerous people," nor are they "inherently more criminal either in intent or actions than their heterosexual counterparts. "As with any group of people, we discovered elements which constitute social or legal problems. But by and large this group in the homosexual community, as in the larger community seems to be small." The Rev. Ted McIlvenna of Glide Foundation, president of the council, said he made 200 visits to gay bars during his part of the study–which he began on his own two years ago. "They were all different," he said. "Some catered to people who were immaculately dressed - obviously business executives; others catered to people casually dressed in levis and sneakers; other drew the black leather motorcycle type..." CAREFUL But in almost all cases he found that "gay bars are policed better by the people who run them" than non gay bars. Canon Robert W. Cromey of St. Aidan's church visited only a few of the bars but had similar conclusions. "Obviously the bar owners are out to make money and want to stay in business," he said. The Rev. Mr. McIlvenna said the only thing he ever saw "out of line" in gay bars was the police. "Sometimes two cops would come in the front door and just stand there–looking. And partly blocking the door. "Or a police car would park across the street and the police would sit there for a long time–starting. "These are all forms of harassment . I'm not against the police, but I think there's been a considerable amount of harassment of gay bars. IMPOLITE The report's criticism of the police said in part that members of the council had been treated impolitely by the police when they sought to talk to them about better understanding of homosexuals. "They seemed sure they were involved in enforcing God's Law." In its discussion of charges of police "entrapment and enticement" techniques the report questions "the legality and justice of having attractive young police officers in civilian clothes making themselves receptive targets for approach and socialization." The report also suggests that far too many officers who might be out apprehending murderers and robbers are spending their time: "Peeking through little holes into men's rooms, or stationed behind vent screens." CHIEF Police Chief Thomas J. Cahill said he didn't know what the ministers were talking about. The police "will police about. He said charges that homosexuals are harassed are "utterly false." What about "enticement and entrapment"? "We will continue to do the police work deemed necessary to protect the public," he said. "We do not violate the law of entrapment." He said homosexuals are "a segment of the population that requires constant policing." Ronald M. Lockyer, district Alcoholic Beverage Control Department administrator, said that "most gay bars are well known and some are well-behaved premises. However, others are very fragrant and these have been prosecuted vigorously." "No one," he said "has ever proved entrapment. We can't comment on the wisdom of the laws. We're just here to enforce the laws the Legislature give us." Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> Article Reporting the Release of <i>Brief of Injustices</i> Description An account of the resource <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>, September 25, 1965, pages 1 and 4. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://sfpl.org/librarylocations/sfhistory/sfhistory.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Public Library</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/dac443b93c96e3242960d876de90a3d6.pdf 1f5fed4ccbad9ade2d180c8547588b33 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: to implement the challenge of change... A Brief of Injustices an indictment of our society in its treatment of the homosexual Presented by The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, Inc. 330 Ellis Street San Francisco, California 94102 Page 2: to implement the challenge of change... A Brief of Injustices an indictment of our society in its treatment of the homosexual Presented by The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, Inc. 330 Ellis Street San Francisco, California 94102 Page 3: Index 1. Homosexuals are being prosecuted under laws which cannot be enforced equitably - Page 3 2. Homosexuals are being socially ostracized to the extent that they are often unable to avail themselves of effective legal counsel and unwilling to risk fighting for their legitimate rights in courts. - Page 4 3. Individuals who publicly assist persons/perceived by others as homosexuals face attempted intimidation by police as well as other negative sanctions. -Page 4 4. Enforcement officers use methods of enticement and entrapment to develop grounds for arrest and conviction of persons presumed to be homosexuals. -Page 5 5. Persons perceived to be homosexuals are subjected to unreasonable and unfair discriminatory practices in employment based on the unfounded belief of employers that homosexuals are unstable or are untrustworthy. - Page 5 6. Persons presumed to be homosexuals, on suspicion alone, are being willfully, publicly and illegally harassed by police in injurious ways. -Page 6 7. Criminals who attack citizens often go free because too much police manpower is used to harass, entice and entrap suspected homosexuals. - Page 7 8. Licensed public premises, such as bars, are subject to prosecution because they provide services to homosexuals or persons presumed to be homosexuals. Conversely, homosexuals and persons presumed to be homosexuals are deprived of access to such licensed public premises which are available to other people. - Page 7 9. In order to make a case against a licensed public place believed to serve homosexuals or persons presumed to be homosexuals, plainclothes investigators employ methods of enticement and entrapment to secure "evidence" which is often proved false or irrelevant. -Page 9 10. Private acts of unsuspecting persons which result from the deceitful enticement of undercover agents are used to suspend or revoke the license of public places, even though neither the enticement nor the private acts have ever been reported to the licensee. Page 9 Cover: The Wall of the Jefferson Memorial, Washington D.C. Page 4: Police harassment and denials of civil rights in San Francisco to persons presumed to be homosexual have raised issues of concern to all citizens. To bring this situation to the attention of the public, the Board of Trustees of The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, Inc., has prepared this Brief of Injustices. As a result of their involvement with the Council, many clergymen became aware of injustices which, until now, have been largely ignored by society. The clergy members of the Council's Board made their own investigation, and upon hearing their conclusions the Board of Trustees concurred. Consequently, this Brief is presented as the consensus of the Board. To place this Brief in proper perspective, we list the purposes of The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, which has as its objective the promotion of a "continuing dialogue between the religious community and homosexuals." 1. To orient members of religious communities (both lay persons and clergy) on aspects of homosexuality (i.e., physical, economic, legal, emotional, etc.) in accordance with homosexual testimony and available scientific data. 2. To encourage members of the religious communities to provide opportunities for homosexuals of both sexes to present their views of homosexuality to various religious organizations. 3. To open up channels of communication so that members of the religious communities may engage in dialogue with homosexuals in order to bring about new and deeper understandings of sexuality, morality, ethical behavior, and the life of religious faith. 4. To study systematically the deeper dynamics of authentic human relationships from biblical, theological and social science perspectives. 5. To engage in research which will further understanding of homosexuality within the larger framework of the present sexual revolution. 6. To enlist the aid of religious publications and other media in working toward a broadened editorial policy including more accurate and objective articles on homosexuality. 7. To provide an effective voice throughout the nation in matters of laws, policies and penal reforms governing adult sexual behavior. 8. To help professional people (clergymen, social workers, etc.) working in mental health and counseling fields to understand better their role in dealing with problems of human sexuality in our society with special reference to young people. 9. To encourage the formation of similar councils on religion and the homosexual in other areas of the nation and the world. We feel that these objectives can only be obtained through a thorough and objective consideration of human sexual behavior from all points of view and with a deep concern for the human beings and values involved in such sensitive, personal matters. The Council had its beginnings with a series of small group meetings which included homosexuals, members of the religious community, leaders of the homophile organizations, and other interested persons. After considering pertinent scientific and professional literature, we began a series of discussions with lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, social workers,. and others knowledgeable in the field. With this background we held a consultation involving thirty people interested in the project. From this consultation there developed the idea of The Council on Religion and the Homosexual. Goals were established; the Council was formed, and later incorporated, and the major work began. Up to this point the results of our investigations were neither conclusive nor consistent. Therefore in order to understand better the ramifications of homosexual behavior, we began direct observation of the homosexual's relationships. The clergy started visiting so-called "gay bars," dances, discussion groups and other Page 5: social functions. Many of us spent time examining the little-publicized problem areas in the homosexual's existence: male prostitution, the aging homosexual, and the behavior which police and society consider undesirable. In the process we met homosexuals of every type, from every social and ethnic group, with every sort of religious and political outlook. From these investigations we derived a new sense of the difficulties we were to face. As time brought greater knowledge we discovered that a majority of homosexuals are productive members of society, doing excellent work in many fields of art, business, industry and the professions. Contrary to the conflicting theories of psychiatrists and other behavioral scientists, many of whom hold that homosexuals are abnormal, neurotic, dangerous people, we found that most of the persons we met and talked to were normal in appearance and fully capable of deep, lasting and moral relationships. Also contrary to popular misconceptions, we learned that homosexuals were not inherently more criminal either in intent or actions than their heterosexual counterparts. As with any group of people, we discovered elements which constitute social or legal problems. But by and large this group in the homosexual community, as in the larger community, seems to be small. In short, homosexuals turned out to be no better or worse than their heterosexual counterparts, differing from them primarily in the choice of a sexual partner. With this knowledge we were ready to act. The homophile organizations related to the Council volunteered to raise funds by sponsoring a benefit costume ball to be held January 1, 196 5. It was through this event that we experienced first hand the harassing tactics of the police. We had apprised the polic.e of the ball and the reasons for holding it, and had been led to believe the police would riot interfere- - but they did. Floodlights illuminated the entrance to the hall and police photographers took still and moving pictures of all persons entering and leaving. Police both plainclothes and uniformed, attempted to enter the hall--and did--following the arrest of three attorneys representing the Council and one woman member who was on duty at the door. Subsequently all four of those arrested pleaded not guilty to "interfering with police in the performance of their duty, " and at their jury trial were found not guilty. Now we are confronted with new and more serious problems. Can we continue what we have begun? Can we do anything constructive without provoking further hostile reactions from the police and perhaps even from the general community? Our answer: We know that we cannot accept quietly the unexpected pressures to which persons of homosexual orientation are being subjected. I During many discussions with lawyers, including those involved in the court cases which followed the dance, we have discovered that there is very little justice for the homosexual. The reasons for this are disturbing. For instance, we were surprised to discover that while it is not against the law to be homosexual, the law forbids specific sexual acts which are illegal whether performed by homosexuals, heterosexuals, or presumably even by children. We question whether such laws are either just or reasonable. Sexual acts are among the most private areas of human expression. As private acts, they should not be the subject of law. We also believe that law should sustain the right of each individual to engage in private sexual activity. Most sex laws are unjust, vague, unenforceable or unrealistic. Such laws serve best to open up avenues for blackmail, police brutality, and the violation of civil rights. The fact that the adult homosexual bears the brunt of a sporadic and prejudicial enforcement of such laws seems to be the choice of the law enforcement agencies themselves. In recent years there has been an increase in arrests for violations of these laws, but the enforcement has been directed almost exclusively against male homosexuals. If capricious enforcement of unjust laws continues, the day will Page 6: soon arrive when irritated or overzealous police officers may, at their own discretion, impose their own prejudices on some of the most intimate and private concerns of human life. This, then, is the first great injustice: Homosexuals are being prosecuted under laws which cannot be enforced equitably. II When we consider the effect of the moral standards of the community, we find that there are even greater inequities. In the Bay Area a sixteen year old boy attempted suicide arid subsequently it was discovered that. he was driven to this extreme by the brutal abuse of his schoolmates who found him to be bookish, a bit different, and therefore implicitly "queer." We have observed situations where parents have disowned their children when they discovered they were homosexuals. When a homosexual's sexual orientation is exposed the result usually is instant and overwhelming social condemnation, public shame and ridicule, the loss of employment, friends and church affiliation. As a result, dread of exposure has made many homosexuals fearful, guilt-ridden and secretive. Such citizens are easily intimidated by the public, the police, the courts and the unscrupulous lawyers to whom they sometimes have to turn. Lawyers who have represented homosexuals have told us that most homosexuals, even if not guilty, will not fight their cases through the courts. They decide it is better to plead guilty and hope for the court's mercy. They are so suspicious and fearful of exposure and publicity they usually prefer to forego trial by jury, feeling certain other citizens will consider them guilty despite all contrary evidence. While still in the hands of the police many homosexuals seem to be intimidated into making damaging admissions, often untrue, which are so incriminating that a merited defense becomes almost impossible. Hence, police statistics indicating the number of convictions may be more indicative of the fear and false guilt felt by the homosexual than of his actual guilt or innocence. Published police statistics which seek to prove that most homosexuals are criminals cannot withstand careful scrutiny from a scientific perspective. Basic prejudices and methods of enforcement preclude the scientific accuracy and importance of such data, This, then, is the second great injustice: Homosexuals are being socially ostracized to the extent that they are often unable to avail themselves of effective legal counsel and unwilling to risk fighting for their legitimate rights in courts. III We have learned much from our confrontations with the police. Before the dance some of us had two long meetings with members of the sex crimes detail of the San Francisco Police Department. What we heard astounded us. We had come to discuss the ball and the possibility of opening up avenues of communication. They were determined to examine our theological beliefs and why we had chosen to concern ourselves with people who committed what were to them sinful acts. During one discussion, we were informed that even masturbation was a crime against "God's Law." They seemed sure they were involved in enforcing "God's Law." It has become apparent that the police feel justified in doing whatever they want to do regardless of whether it is merited or not, wise, or even legal. We have also discovered that the word of some persons representing the police department is undependable; their attitudes tend to be rather big brotherish, and their actions tend to Page 7: be oppressive if not unjust. We fear this may set unparalleled precedents for, establishing a police state; where private fanaticism becomes public dogma, where eccentricity makes a man a felon, where suspicion invariably convicts, and where statutes come to mean whatever the police want them to mean. We were told; "Leave morals and law enforcement to us." In effect, they said return to the temple and pray. For us, however, God's action is not only in the temple but in the world confronting human need. This, then, is the third great injustice: Individuals who publicly assist persons perceived by others as homosexuals face attempted intimidation by police as well as other negative sanctions. IV As we have noted, the choice of the persons against whom the penalties of law are enforced seems to rest with the police department. As a result, some homosexuals suffer from the inequitable enforcement of law. But we have found our greatest source of concern in the specific police tactics used to make arrests and obtain convictions. We are convinced that the police use entrapment or enticement in order to make arrests, although they vehemently deny resorting to such practices. It is our understanding that such methods are illegal. For instance, we wonder about the legality and justice of having attractive young police officers in civilian clothes making themselves receptive targets for approach and solicitation. Can such officers be expected invariably to resist the temptation to lead the conversation into areas where an arrest is assured? The courts seem to believe the word of the police. But we wonder if the police always tell the truth. There may be many cases in which policemen color the truth or distort facts to get a conviction. And we suspect that there may be officers who spend time peeking through little holes into men's rooms or stationed behind vent screens. Others may stand at urinals inviting approach. As ministers, we have investigated many of the so-called "set-ups" used to make such arrests, and we can only wonder with what sort of men we are dealing. It has been suggested that the frequency of arrests and their nature could indicate the existence of a quota system based on the principle that minimum police efficiency demands at least so many arrests of a certain type by certain officers over a period of time. A more basic question is: Is solicitation with the intent to commit a sexual act of any kind justification for arrest and conviction? Is the discussion of possible sexual acts an adequate ground for considering that a person manifests sexual behavior presently against the law? If conversations about illegal matters are made equivalent to actual violation of law then we would have to incarcerate almost everyone. This, then, is the fourth great injustice: Enforcement officers use methods of enticement and entrapment to develop grounds for arrest and conviction of persons presumed to be homosexual. V It does not end here. We have learned that when a person is arrested he is fingerprinted, photographed, and a record is made of the charges against him. Even if the courts dismiss the case or find him not guilty, this record of arrest is retained by the police department. It can follow the person throughout his lifetime and be used much later to ruin him, particularly if the charges involve, homosexual acts, which many employers consider a risky credit for an employee. It is unfair for employers to subject such persons to severe penalties on the basis of a police record of arrests--especially as arrests are made as a means of intimidation when the arresting officers know they cannot make a case in court. It is especially unjust when prolonged unemployment results from less than legal arrests and less than just Page 8: court proceedings. But the police do not always stop at reporting the record. In many cases they tell the person's employer of the charges against him, or release this information to the press for publication, which has the same effect. The lawyers arrested at the ball were the victims of such practices by the police department which sent the San Francisco Bar Association a report that these attorneys had been arrested defending homosexuals. Fortunately, the ethics of the Bar Association are quite different from those of the police. The same might be said, but in another way in reference to the discriminatory policies adhered to by the military and governmental sectors of our society. Suspected homosexuals are ferreted out and discharged as quickly as possible. For instance, a majority of homosexuals have served honorably in the military services without being detected or demoralizing their companions. The unfortunates who are discovered are discharged on "other than honorable grounds." This becomes all the more lamentable since the younger ones often do not manifest behavior associated with homosexuality until they are in the armed services. Government employees often are pre-emptorily discharged after expensive investigations disclose grounds for "suspicion of homosexual behavior." Yet it has never been scientifically established that homosexuals are undesirable in public or military service because of their susceptibility to being blackmailed or because of innate characteristics which affect job performance. Returning to the private sector, many private employers discharge homosexual employees on grounds justified by little more than custom, prejudice and taboo. These attitudes encourage mass personnel inquisitions consuming thousands of dollars and countless man hours, and often result in irreparable loss of talent and productivity which our society cannot afford. This, then, is the fifth great injustice: Persons perceived to be homosexuals are subjected to unreasonable and unfair discriminatory practices in employment based on the unfounded belief of employers that homosexuals are unstable or untrustworthy. VI It is common knowledge that the police engage in other forms of harassment. Harassment of persons in bars, on streets, or in other public places seems predicated on the theory that although most people, even highly trained ones, cannot detect the average homosexual, the police are fully capable of making such fine distinctions. Persons are subjected to questioning based on suspicion alone without there being any proof that illegal sexual acts have been or ever will be performed by that individual. Because of dress, manner, place of assembly, choice of associates, or just because the officers detect a seeming difference from the norm, persons may be detained for questioning, have makeup cards filed on them, and in other ways be publicly embarrassed and forced to endure verbal abuse. Members of the Council and their wives have experienced such verbal abuse. In our encounter with the police, one said: "I never thought I'd see the day when ministers helped queers." One of the ministers was asked by a policeman in a condemning tone, "Would you want your son to be a homosexual?" Another question was asked, "What does your wife think of your helping homosexuals?" This, then, is the sixth great injustice: Persons presumed to be homosexuals, on suspicion alone, are being willfully, publicly, and illegally harassed by police in injurous ways. Page 9: Because homosexuals are subjected to the contempt of the public and the police, they become fair game for all forms of criminality. Fearful and distrustful of the police, the courts, and indeed of the public in general, homosexuals choose to submit to beatings, extortion and robbery by professional criminals. Many of the major crimes committed in San Francisco, such as murder, assault and battery, extortion and robbery, are perpetrated on homosexuals. Few of the perpetrators of these crimes ever seem to be caught. A whole underworld of traffic in male flesh is reported to flourish in San Francisco, yet it often seems that persons most subjected to harassment are the homosexuals who, for one reason or another, find it necessary to be clients of male prostitutes. We seriously question the advisability of the amount of police time and public money used to harass suspected homosexuals while many actual malefactors escape apprehension. We think members of the sex crimes detail now spending their time in latrines, in plainclothes standing on the street corners, or in gay bars seeking to entrap unsuspecting citizens, could better protect our community by concentrating on major areas of crime. It appears to us that disorganized and prejudicial law enforcement is almost as much of a problem as organized crime. This, then, is the seventh great injustice: Criminals who attack citizens often go free because too much police manpower is used to harass, entice and entrap suspected homosexuals. VIII Our investigation into the homosexual's behavior and his relationships to his society led us to consider the so-called "gay bars." For the harassed homosexual there hardly seems to be any place other then the gay bar in which he may freely associate without baleful scrutiny and the need to wear a mask. We investigated heterosexual bars and gay bars impartially, and at no time did we observe in gay bars any actions we might deem shocking or immoral. In most cases our arrival was not particularly noticed. We doubt that the patrons in the bars could have known that we were ministers. It can be said that in appearance, atmosphere, deportment of clientele, and the nature of any sexuality which might inadvertently find expression, the average gay bar is forced to be well above its heterosexual counterpart. After a thorough investigation of bars we met with various bartenders, managers and others who were, familiar with the problems faced by the bar owner and his patrons. This led to a confrontation with the Alcoholic Beverage Control in a meeting we held with its regional director. Unsatisfied with what we had been told there, we examined court records of such famous litigation as "Stoumen vs. Reilly," or what is popularly known as "The Black Cat Case;" "Mary's First and Last Chance," a bar which was located in Oakland; and some more recent closures affecting "Jack's Waterfront," "The D'Oak Room" and "The Jumpin' Frog" bars which we had inspected prior to their closing. Legal matters were reviewed with several lawyers, and in some cases we talked with some of the patrons who had been arrested by ABC agents or city police in attempts to gather sufficient evidence to justify closing the bars. At first we did not realize the full implications of our investigations. Basically what we found was that an agency of government, in this case the ABC, was using prejudicial enforcement of a questionable law to justify the closing of homosexual bars under legal provisions it used much less frequently in cases involving heterosexual bars. Since the average life span of a gay bar seems to be something short of two years, while heterosexual bars usually remain open almost indefinitely, it Page 10: appears that the degree of scrutiny which homosexual bars receive may greatly exceed that accorded heterosexual bars. Apparently they are usually closed on several grounds which may be summed up in this way: the licensee is running a dis.orderly house injurious to the public decency or morals, because within the premises and with his full knowledge he permitted lewd or lascivious acts, a public display or manifestation of aberrant sexual urges or desires, verbal solicitations. indicating the intent to perform such acts, or that he allowed his bar to become a resort for dope pushers or addicts, prostitutes, pimps, panderers or sexual perverts. It is very misleading to consider sexual pervert and homosexual as synonymous. For instance, some authorities consider the use of contraceptives as a practice of sexual perversion- -the perverting of sexual intimacies from the intended purpose of procreation. The disagreements which exist between scientists, sociologists, physicians, lawyers and even the clergy about the etiology of homosexuality, its nature and manifestations, preclude such a. connection between homosexuality and sexual perversion. In addition, persons with homosexual inclinations have not been scientifically proven to be ipso facto criminals, intrinsically detrimental to civilization or infected with disease. Neither do they comprise a small element in the population which can be isolated, incarcerated or eradicated by repressive measures. Therefore, to close bars just because they are patronized by homosexuals, on the basis of the incorrect belief that homosexuals are sexual perverts, is incoherent reasoning. In fact, we are told by people knowledgeable in the field that even if this spurious contention were valid there is no way to determine with any certainty what persons or groups of persons in a bar are homosexual. Therefore, as written, justice and equity in applying this law are almost impossible. There are more basic issues. Charges drawn up against gay bars are an itemization either of verbal solicitations or of acts tending to the public display or manifestation of aberrant sexual urges or desires, which are directed to, or seen by, specific ABC undercover agents whose entry into and departure from the bar are unknown to its owner. In such a sense, the act of a man placing his arm loosely around the waist of another man, in a gay bar, within the view of such an agent, indicates that the man is a homosexual publicly expressing sexual urges or desires, or the intent thereto, which are clearly against the present statutes. This sort of evidence is used to establish that the bar owner is keeping a disorderly house. To establish that a disorderly house exists does not require that a person named in a charge must actually commit an illegal sex act, so any interpretation of intent to commit such acts on the basis that a person is presumed to be a homosexual is unjustified and irrational. Most intelligent people would never sanction branding citizens as homosexuals solely on the basis that their thoughts, speech, mannerisms, conversations, attitudes, tendencies or psychological responses are in some manner or to some degree, unconventional. Neither would they expect lay authorities such as the police, the ABC, or even the courts to be able to determine from simple aspects of non-sexual behavior whether persons were homosexual. Because there is a difference between the acts themselves and the mere intent to perform them, there is no substantial connection between gestures or conversations and the specific sexual acts which are against the law. Therefore, justice itself would preclude confounding intent to perform with performance when the actual performance itself is substantially lacking. Clearly, the manner of application and enforcement of these statutes depends upon the personal opinions and prejudices of the ABC and its agents, a type of enforcement which fosters oppression, blackmail and discrimination. We hardly think it prudent to invest the ABC with the exclusive, unlimited and unrestrained authority to suppress or regulate the behavior of bar patrons through its right to suspend or revoke licenses. Thus ABC becomes what it should not become, the keeper of morals for bar patrons in general and for homosexuals in particular. Page 11: This, then, is the eighth great injustice: Licensed public premises, such as bars are subject to prosecution because they provide services to homosexuals or persons presumed to be homosexuals. Conversely, homosexuals and persons presumed to be homosexuals are deprived of access to such licensed public premises which are available to other people. IX The methods used by the ABC to gather evidence against bars are not unlike those used by the plainclothes agents of the police department. Through deceit and inducement, lure and suggestion, both police and ABC undercover agents encourage solicitations for sexual acts. Such solicitations are not reported to the licensee until months or years later when they are published in the charges used to suspend or revoke the license. In reading the charges filed against several of the bars, we concluded that almost any act or conversation in a gay bar is sufficient for arrest and for use as data in revoking the license. There is also the question of the strict legality of ruses and ploys employed by these agents in their efforts to make a case against the gay bar. We ask: In playing their part in an endless crusade to enforce the so-called moral code of society, are these agents free from disposition toward prejudice or a tendency to deliberately distort and alter the facts just to get sufficient evidence to close the bar? This, then, is the ninth great ,injustice: In order to make a case against a licensed public place believed to serve homosexuals or persons presumed to be homosexuals, plainclothes investigators employ methods of enticement and entrapment to secure "evidence" which is often proved false or irrelevant. X Although the ABC has repeatedly denied that it keeps files of charges on gay bars, or that such charges are being gathered against all the gay bars in San Francisco, logic indicates that the entire truth is not being told. Somewhere a closed file, or its equivalent, unavailable for public or legal scrutiny, must be in the process of being assembled, for in many cases the dates of actual incidents used as evidence to suspend a license date far back into the bar's history. As we have stated, from our observation the standards of behavior in gay bars are equal to, if not higher than, those in most heterosexual bars; therefore unless we assume that carefully assembled files of charges are kept on such bars we are at a loss to explain the fact that almost all gay bars are eventually closed. Since the files remain secret, since the undercover agents never report arrests to the bar owner, and since the ABC never publishes the charges until action is taken to suspend or revoke the license, the owner of the bar is required to defend himself against accusations concerning acts which may have occurred months or even years earlier. Proper defense against such charges is then almost impossible. Indeed, in criminal court the charges against the person arrested and named in the ABC action are often dismissed for lack of evidence, but the arrest is still held against the bar. Such accusations, traditionally of dubious merit, are used at a cut-and-dried proforma hearing where, almost without exception, they form the basis for the suspension of the license pending appeal. Appeals through the ABC almost always fail, and since actions on the constitutional issues in the civil courts are prohibitively expensive, most bars whose licenses are suspended are financially unable to fight for justice. Therefore they have no alternative but to go out of business. The whole idea of suspending a license pending appeal seems to be a denial of due process. Unable to properly defend himself against vague and often uncorroborated charges of which he is unaware until his license is suspended, the licensee is found sufficiently guilty by the ABC to justify suspending the license, leaving him the Page 12: almost impossible task of proving that he is innocent when in effect he has already been convicted. When we examined the actual court cases, the hearings and the appeals, we noticed that gay bars never seem to win reversals of any sort. As we have seen in the Black Ca.t case, those few that do fight their cases through the courts only achieve a temporary stay of execution. ABC pressure continues until something is found which will justify a revocation of the license. We feel the ABC is well aware that without funds the licensee cannot afford the great cost of taking the case into the courts where reversal might be possible. We suspect that both the hearing and the appeal boards of the ABC are inclined to follow the basic dictum of the entire agency; that all homosexual bars must be closed. This arrangement is a prime example of the vicious circle in exercising unlimited power to try to convict. The ABC is the investigator through its undercover agents, the accuser through its list of secret and vague charges, the prosecutor through its published charges, the judge through its boards of hearing and appeal, and the punisher through its right to suspend a license pending appeal. Such policies and actions lead us to believe that a highly prejudiced concern with a moral function exists which does not properly fall within the purview of the ABC. If they are disorderly, bars should be closed. But such treatment should be equitable, and should be based on investigations and charges which apply uniformly and which do not violate due process. Gay bars per se are not hotbeds of unspeakable acts, or the scenes of wild orgies. Just because homosexuals gather together there is no automatic offense to public morals and decency. We ministers have been in and out of all these bars often enough to reach this conclusion. This, then, is the tenth great injustice: Private acts of unsuspecting persons which result from the deceitful enticement of undercover agents are used to suspend or revoke the license of public places; even though neither the enticement nor the private acts have ever been reported to the licensee. Our police department, ever alert in rooting out crime in our community, does its small part to intimidate the patrons of gay bars. Besides the use of entrapment and enticement inside the bars they also harass people as they enter or leave. Indeed, as we have discovered, in the last ten years arrests in and out of bars has increased sharply. We wonder if these statistics do not suggest that in many cases arrests of homosexuals are like parking tickets, an effective and socially acceptable way of showing that the police are doing the job of enforcing "God's Law." Such indications provide little comfort when we read about murders and robbery on streets and in parks, or in one case, at the benefit ball, we observed over 35 policemen standing on the sidewalks. As ministers, we are discouraged when we realize that some of these social problems stem in part from misconceptions about theology and the interpretation of the Bible. The churches cannot escape their own participation in the perpetuation of these injustices. Selection of scriptural references, for instance, contribute to the attitudes of parishioners. One may read the Ten Commandments, wherein homosexuality is not mentioned at all, or one may use the oft-quoted Sodom and Gomorrah passage to justify the extermination of all homosexual behavior. We as churchmen cannot separate ourselves from our participation in the society which now perpetrates the injustices which we have described. At the same time we want to align ourselves with the causes which uphold the rights of persons, and against institutions which treat any person as less than a human and a child of God. In drawing up this Brief of Injustices we feel we are helping to expose a pattern of social, legal and economic oppression of a minority group, based not on fact and scientific analysis but rather on taboo and fear. No amount of condemnation, intimidation or incarceration in penal or mental institutions can alter the fact that a large minority of American citizens has, according to existing laws, at least upon occasion been guilty of committing homosexual acts. Further, the unreasonable Page 13: discrimination against homosexuals is demonstrated by the existence of a vast schism between the actual sexual activities of the entire population and those theoretically ideal standards which legal codes seek to uphold. Thus that a few are caught and punished is even more reprehensible. In sexual matters the law should be concerned with the protection of youth and the guarding of the public against force or predatory conduct. Other sexual behavior should be rooted in personal liberty and should be legally protected. Closely related, the right to peacefully meet in places open to the public is no more than the right of assembly granted to all citizens and should not be denied to the homosexual. It seems to us the first duty of the police is to prevent crime, not to provoke it for the sole purpose of its prosecution and punishment. Surely the utilization of plainclothesmen to try to induce citizens to perform homosexual acts for the purpose of arresting them is neither the best use of our police force nor an act of public justice. We also believe that Americans should reject any custom or law which would make any public authority the judge of private, personal moral convictions. Certainly such an authority should not permit a civil right to be whittled away indirectly any more than it should be allowed to be destroyed directly. We feel that the test of a democratic society is in the extent to which it suppresses individual thought and action. For some time there has been a demand for regulation of every aspect of human behavior and the repression of more and more conduct that is supposedly different from the so-called norm. This in itself is an expression of a growing tendency to employ broad standards and vaguely worded laws which seem to equate sin with crime, and which are used by the police to scoop up possible violators as they see fit. The excessive concern of some Americans over what are essentially areas of personal expression in sexual behavior, exercised between adults in private, can result in our becoming a nation of professional snoopers and privacy invaders, a society of voyeurs seeking to expose the scandals and defects in others which we refuse to recognize in ourselves. Laws based on such whims are a step backward. Such tendencies are. diametrically opposed to the principles of equality we profess to maintain, reducing suspected homosexuals to the status of second grade citizens and inferior human beings. In addition, it is our firm belief that any law which is unenforceable is worse than no law at all. Besides the violations of civil and human rights which these injustices imply, there are issues which reflect concern for human tragedy and waste of potential contributions to the growth of our society. The expenditures of public monies on witch hunts is only the smallest part of such waste. Greater losses occur in the reduced capacity of the individual to produce either for himself or his society. The dispersal of energies in countless small, yet terrible tragedies, seems unnecessary. We feel the chief goal in dealing with homosexuals should not be to try to reorient their sexual propensities through punishment and intimidation but rather to help them attain a satisfactory self-image and a meaningful relationship to society. Indeed, no one should be forced to suffer in silence or live in fear. We believe that only sensible criteria for judging human relationships is the maturity, necessity and justice inherent in•each relationship. Social and legal justice is essential. Society must not suffer from cheap harassment perpetrated in the name of virtue when, in fact, it is the terrible vice. Reacting to these pressures, the persecuted minority is forced into ghetto-like in-groupisms and secrecies which lead the homosexual to perpetrate on himself insults and degradations far beyond those imposed by the oppressive and hostile society in which he lives. So the homosexual is forced to perpetrate the last great injustice upon himself, that of failing to realize the best in himself and his part in cultivating the best in his society. There is an old Chinese proverb which says, "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." This is what we have tried to do. We are convinced that to change these constantly reinforced patterns of injustice, existing barriers to the ex- Page 14: change of knowledge must be destroyed. We of The Council on Religion and the Homosexual must find ways to establish communication between the homosexual and his society. Our work.is not aided by police who harass us, by politicians who are fearful of talking with us, by segments of the press which prefer either sensationalism or silence, by portions of the religious community which prefer to condemn rather than to understand, and by homosexuals who reject any effort to approach them. Fear will never set man free, and fear itself is perhaps the greatest obstacle which man must overcome. In our efforts to become free men we must be guided by the central ethical command of our Judeo-Christian tradition: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Signed by the Board of Trustees of The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, Inc., June, 1965 The Rev. Ted Mcllvenna, President Mr. Donald S. Lucas, Vice-President Mrs. Del Martin, Secretary Mr. Robert Walker, Treasurer Mr. William Beardemphl Mr. Harold L. Call The Rev. Dr. Clarence A. Colwell The Rev. Canon Robert W. Cromey Mr. Mark Forrester Mr. Darryl Glied Miss Phyllis Leon The Rev. Charles Lewis The Rev. Jan Marinissen Mr. Guy Strait The Rev. A. Cecil Williams Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <i>Brief of Injustices</i> Published by CRH in September, 1965 (14 pages) Description An account of the resource Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin Papers. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.glbthistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLBT Historical Society</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/63f9f5e06df3eda93f516f44c432d10a.pdf 0c93c79ed5ce7df2c2c099a83d61cca1 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: In the past 120 days since CRH incorporated these are some of the accomplishments: DECEMBER: Announcement of CRH to press by Rev. Canon Cromey. Canon Cromey appeared on KCBS radio's Spectrum 74 A group of the CRH ministers met with the local ABC official. Reverends Ted McIlvenna & Cecil Williams met with the vice squad Nieto & Castro, inspectors with the vice squad, met with CRH Board. JANUARY: New Year's Ball - police harassment - ensuing arrests - publicity. $100 donated by Tavern Guild Ministers held press conference to protest police tactics. ACLU volunteered to take case of arrested attorneys. Guy Strait appeared on Spectrum 74. Letter campaign to newspapers, mayor, police John Moore on Spectrum 74 Bob Cromey & Don Lucas on Dick Stewart show on TV twice Johm Moore series of sermons on sex reported on news services Clay Colwell sets up meeting of ministers & homosexuals in Chicago at urban Training Center CRH endorsed by young democrats of S.F. Attorneys & Nancy May on radio CRH board members make KPFA tape CRH committees set up Lutheran North Beach Mission attends service at Glide for Moore sermon on homosexuality. FEBRUARY: Trial - defense wins on technicality Del M. & Don L. meet with editor of Ramparts magazine re article on homo. (they will run series of three) Members of CRH participate in young adult service. MARCH: Episcopal Diocese - Mrs. Bullwinkle runs names of speakers on homo. in bulletin circulated to all women's groups. Page 2: Episcopal Diocese Social Relations Committee recommends committee to study homosexuality & recommend official church policy on homo. Committee recommends Episcopal Diocese endorse Council Don Lucas meets with director of Humanist Society Article on CRH submitted to Davis Christian group Panel of CRH speakers at S.F. Theological Seminary Trustees attend Cal. Med. Center symposium Fred Bird speaks at San Mateo College Fred Bird speaks at Berkeley Methodists Benefit at Golden Cask - 8 more Methodist ministers back CRH. Ten programs taped for KXKX radio. Panel speaks before 20 ministers at urban training center Three ministers from above visit DOB office Retreat booklet goes to press - due out April 8 Clay & Ruth Colwell visit three newspaper publishers United Church votes $1,000 to CRH First issue of Challenge runs articles on CRH & homo. Clay c., Ed Setchko & Larry Jones meet with Phila. people. Don & Del at St. Aidan's sex class on homo. Bob & Del on POW - not released yet APRIL: Brief of Injustices Panel at Bay Area Ethical Culture Fellowship Meeting with Dr. Isadore Rubin, Sexology Mag. Panel at Unitarian Single Adults, Berkeley Ministers in Honolulu wish to start Council Southern Calif. ACLU meeting Don L. & Fred Bird at Jr. C of C Ted speaks to air command in Alaska - projected long range program with council of chaplains of council of churches Cecil has talked on CRH in Texas Interest in L.A. Glide has "integrated young adult group Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Document Outlining CRH’s Accomplishments in the 120 Days Beginning December 1964 Description An account of the resource Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin Papers. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.glbthistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GLBT Historical Society</a>