Jim Kepner resigns for the second (final) time
November 15, 1960
This letter was sent to the Members of ONE, Incorporated by Jim Kepner. It is reprinted in its entirety. A copy of this letter is on file with the HIC archives in the Vern and Bonnie Bullough Collection on Sex and Gender at California State University, Northridge.
November 15, 1960
To the Members of ONE, Incorporated:
In the early months of 1952, when the old Mattachine leaders were laying the plans that grew into ONE Magazine and ONE Incorporated, I was independently carrying on fruitless discussions and correspondence with friends in hopes of launching a similar project. Shortly after, I was overjoyed to hear from friends associated with ONE about the founding of the magazine. Following a brief sojourn in the Mattachine, I chose ONE and gave it my allegience [sic] and seven years of my life—except for a brief withdrawal in 1955 in opposition to the plan to buy or lease a house as a Skid-Row mission for homosexuals.
I don’t suppose that any organization, however placid it may appear, operates without frictions and disagreements, and as these have mounted on ONE’s staff, I have tried to examine myself to see if the difficulty might be largely subjective. I think not. But a wide divergence of policy and purpose has developed between myself and others on the Board, in such matters as the overblown claims made for the Institute, a general chip-on-the-shoulder attitude which is too often the face that the Corporation shows to the world, haggling about the Quarterly, the handling of the forthcoming Midwinter Institute plans, mismanagement of the Book Service and other serious financial questions, and some general personnel problems. Out of abiding respect for those with whom I so sharply disagree, I will avoid a list of recriminations. I hope that either events will prove me wrong, or ONE will in time come to more satisfactory policies. Since the working conditions at the office have grown increasingly intolerable for me during the past five months, I now feel I have no alternative but to resign from membership in the Corporation.
I hope this can be accomplished with a minimum of friction, and I hope that the hard feelings will in time be forgotten. I will remain interested in the Corporation’s projects and progress and will contribute what I can as an individual.
I wish ONE and its members success, and am truly sorry that I must separate myself from it.
Sincerely,
James Kepner, Jr.,
along with
Dal McIntire
Lyn Pedersen
Frank Golovitz
John Arnold
This page was created by C. Todd White from information gathered while researching his doctoral dissertation, Out of Many… A Social History of the Homosexual Rights Movement. Dr. G. Alexander Moore was director of White’s dissertation committee, in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern California.
