1913, January 23: Dr. Albert Sterns: “from homo- to hetero-sex”

In response to a paper on “Some Aspects of the Social Hygiene Movement,” presented by Rachelle S. Yarrows, M.D., of Chicago, at the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 23, 1913, Dr. Albert E. Stern, of Indianapolis, Indiana, commented:

The time to begin this educational movement is at the time when the individual composition of the community is manifested where nature points the way, at the period when education is easiest attained; that is, when nature passes from homo- to hetero-sex. Nearly all of us in our earlier years are homo-sex. Later we learn what we should do and what we should not do. This knowledge is not acquired through instinct. When we change from homo- to hetero-sex is the time to tell the child what it all means. It is easily done in the home and school. In later years it is entirely too late. If that were done, it seems to me that we could bring about in the future generations a new viewpoint. The dual condition of morality in society is due to the good woman; they permit the young men to walk along different paths. If the good women would say that you all should walk along this line, they would all it.

To which Dr. Yarros responded: “…. We have not yet solved this elemental point, this sex problem, but let us make the men stronger and the women a little wiser."

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Note
Lancet-Clinic (Cincinatti, Ohio), Volume 111, Issue 3, January 17, 1914. Dr. Yarrow’s presentation: 67-69. Dr. Stern’s response: 70. Accessed March 26, 2016 from: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079970441;view=1up;seq=24   <Hv grab of Stern's text.>