ABSTRACT
This is the text of the open letter written by Hal Call, president of the Mattachine Society, following the evaluation and bibliographic review of a report (issued earlier in 1964) titled “Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida,” the product of a Florida legislative committee initially named for former Florida Governor Charley E. Johns. Due to its inclusion of what were purported to be photographs of homosexual acts in public places, the report was promptly declared to be obscene by the prosecuting attorney of Miami. Leaked copies of the report created such a furor of criticism that the committee chairman and working staff resigned and the appropriation was rescinded. A lengthy discussion of this incident may be found in James T.Sears's account of southern gay and lesbian history, Lonely Hunters: An Oral History of Lesbian and Gay Southern Life, 1948–1968 (1997).Edmund Bergler was the author of the 1962 book Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life?, and Alan Guttmacher was a sex researcher and advocate of birth control.
