Kameny's Letter to advice columnist, Ann Landers

January 6, 1966

Dear Miss Landers:

... You say that I have heard from thousands of homosexuals these past ten years and most of
them are unhappy, frightened and lonely. They long to lead normal lives . You are making the
same error that innumerable psychiatrists, clergymen, and others do who consider themselves
knowledgeable about homosexuals but who really are not so you are seeing a biased, slanted,
grossly atypical sample, and are generalizing from it falsely so.

With a few exceptions, ONLY the unhappy, frightened and lonely homosexuals write to you for
advice. Why would the others do so? Why would the very many happy, confident, socially active
and gregarious homosexuals have occasion to write to you? Most homosexuals are not as you
describe them, and have NO desire to change to heterosexuality.

Similarly, only the disturbed or otherwise maladjusted homosexuals go to psychiatrists and

clergymen, etc. As a result, entire books have been written about these maladjusted people as if
they were typical of all homosexuals. They are not.

This can well be illustrated by the apocryphal story ... about two psychiatrists: First Psychiatrist
But all my homosexual patients are seriously disturbed. Second Psychiatrist Yes, but
then all my heterosexual patients are seriously disturbed, too.

Naturally so, or they wouldnt be patients.

What percentage of the total number of people writing to you are unhappy, frightened, and
lonely? rather high, I should think. Do you really think that this is a representative sampling of
everybody? Hardly.

Finally, have you considered that the reasons for the unhappiness, fright, and loneliness of many

of these people lies, in major measure, with the prejudiced and discriminatory attitudes of the
society around them, in which they live?

Suggesting that the cure for their unhappiness, fright and loneliness might be change to
heterosexuality is like suggesting that the cure for the misfortunes that beset the Negro and the
Jew, as a result of segregation, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism would best be cured by
bleaching the Negro and converting the Jew to Christianity.

There are organizations working hard to solve the problems of the homosexual from the viewpoint
from which those problems would be approached as problems (basically, and primarily) in
civil liberties, social rights, prejudice and discrimination; and (secondarily) as you correctly
indicate, in adjustment of the individual homosexual to himself and to acceptance of himself and
his homosexuality. These organizations deserve your support. I enclose a brochure of the more
important of them. ...

Sincerely yours, Franklin E. Kameny