While the MATTACHINE SOCIETY’S ONE is still available on newsstands, many of its 5,000 readers have called to ask where their subscription copies are. Explains ONE attorney Eric Julber, “(I’ve) been instructed by the U.S. Postal Department in Washington to detain the second-class mailing of ONE’s October issue, pending final determination of the U.S. Solicitor general as to its mailability.”

On the October cover is shot across the Postal Service’s bow after its August 1953 issue on “Homosexual Marriage” (which, for the record, they were against) was “pronounced respectable” after three weeks of inspection/delay. “The Post Office found that ONE is obscene in no way … Never before has a government agency of this nature admitted that homosexuals not only have legal rights but might have respectable motives as well.” Nonetheless, the October issue is officially banned as “obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy.”

White Crane had a similar experience back in 2008 when we had switched printers for costs sake to a printer located in Canada. Imagine my surprise when our entire run for that issue was seized at the border as pornography. A few quick phone calls took care of things. But the price of liberty remains constant vigilance.