THE WOLFENDEN DEBATE his letter in your last issue, Mr.
Peter Wilde- blood offers as evidence of the high incidence of homosexuality in this country the conclusions of an investigation, quoted in the Wolfenden Report, which 'attributes homosexual trends to 5 per cent. and some homosexual experience to 30 per cent.' From the context it would seem that the investigation referred to is the one mentioned in para. 40 of the Report; if so, Mr. Wildeblood should read it again. We are told that a psychologist 'examined 100 male under- graduates and found that thirty of them had had homosexual trends and fantasies at some time in their lives and that five of these still retained them at the age of twenty-plus.' It is almost unbelievable that in Mr. Wildeblood's arithmetic these thirty under- graduates with 'homosexual trends and fantasies' should be multiplied into 5,400,000 adult British males 'with some homosexual experience' !
Even worse than the free and easy way in which the advocates of homosexual law 'reform' manipulate the figures (few in all conscience) is their habit of confusing the issue by lumping together under the one head and in the same discussion practices of a very different character and importance. Homosexuality is a portmanteau word. There can be no profitable dis- cussion of the problem until it is realised that what one man means by the term may be the 'abominable crime' that perpetuates the name and grossly maligns a sect of Bulgarian heretics while another is getting all hot and bothered about something which the Wolfenden Report refers to as 'nothing more than horscplay.'—Yours faithfully, E. ROYSTON PIKE
14 Hinchley Drive, Ether
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