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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"

I also never
dreamed of any sort of insistence on sexual expression. With such
love as he could give I was quite ready to make myself content.
'The true measure of love,' wrote a uranian schoolmaster to me
once, 'is self-sacrifice'; not 'What will you give?' but 'What
will you give up?' Not 'What will you do for him?' but 'What will
you forego for his sake?' I quote this gladly, for the
conventional English moralists regard an invert as a kind of
deformed beast. I can only say that I tried to realize the ideal
which these words express. No 'moralist' would have helped me one
whit. The parents, also, separated us. They have done much harm
by their mistake. How difficult it is for parents to allow
freedom to their children! Their ideal is successful constraint,
not free self-discovery. But in spite of them, and in spite of
the separation, I know that my friend and I have helped each
other.
"There is one fear parents have which I believe is unwarranted.
As far as I have seen, I do not conclude that the early
expression of homosexual love prevents heterosexual love from
developing later.


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