Recently, a homosexual wrote me, imploring me to tell him of
any land that would allow him to be a homosexual legally. I re-
plied that I knew of no such place. (Since then, I've heard that
in Holland and Denmark homosexuality is legally permissible.)
Indeed, I cannot think of any country where people can be
heterosexual without treading on the corns of the killjoys.

There is no homosexuality in Summerhill. However, as in
every group of children who come to Summerhill, there is un-
conscious homosexuality during a certain stage of development.

Our boys of nine and ten have no use for girls at all. They
despise them. They gang up in groups that are not interested in
members of the opposite sex. Rather, their interest is in making
someone "stick 'em up!" Girls of this same age are likewise
only interested in youngsters of their own sex, and form their
own groups. Even when they first come into puberty, they do
not run after the boys. It appears that the unconscious homo-
sexuality of girls lasts longer than it does with boys. Although
they may challenge and rally the boys in a friendly way, they
keep to their gangs. But at this age, girls are jealous of their
rights. The superiority of the boys in strength and the roughness
of the boys annoys them. This is their age of protest against
masculinity.

Generally speaking, boys and girls are not much interested in
each other until they are about fifteen or sixteen. They show no
natural inclination to pair off with each other. In fact, their in-
terest in the opposite sex takes an aggressive form.

It is because Summerhill children do not suffer from a guilt
complex about masturbation that they do not respond in an

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