Juicy Jugs Vol. 1 # 3, 1975

EDITORIAL Recently, many observations have been made of our society's changing attitudes toward human erotic behavior. Women's rights organizations are gradually achieving for females the sexual freedoms permitted to males for generations. Couples and groups seeking new lifestyles are demanding that government agencies acknowledge their right to form relationships as they choose, giving legal sanction to any who request it. And middle-income husbands and wives are embracing a freewheeling sexual adjustment called swinging that has, in the past, been enjoyed only by the wealthy. Through all of these changes, there remains a small group of people who insist that society is best only when it follows the precepts of our grandparents. These people attempt to have passed and enforced antisex legislation that will compel modern people to accept the sexual and moral standards of their provincial ancestors. But we live in a viable, dynamic culture. People today are not willing to sacrifice their rights on the altar of traditionalism, as did past generations. The popularity of X-rated movies shows the importance today's freethinking individuals put on their prerogatives to see what they choose. In most instances where a local government has attempted to restrict the showing of some movie, they have done so in the face of box-office sell-outs. Customers often wait in long lines to see the movies that some group of censors are, at that moment, attempting to close. Our Constitution was designed to accommodate a growing, changing society. It contains, in the Bill or Rights, enforceable protections against a domination of the government by one individual or by a small power group that wishes to impose its standards on the entire country. But these protections are only valuable if they are used. The advocates of new ideas and lifestyles will only achieve their goals of acceptance under law if they continue to insist that they, as citizens of our country, should not be denied their rights because they are different. If you have been unable to see an X-rated movie or buy a certain kind of magazine because a group of people who were determined to regulate your "morals" interfered with your free choice, you have been denied your Constitutionally guaranteed rights. But you will not get them back unless you raise your voice in protest. Write to your representatives, both local and national, demanding the freedoms the Bill of Rights provides. If you don't, you will lose them. We have a government designed to protect the people. But it can only work if the people are active in expressing their wishes. Speak out—or a "moral" dictatorship will force you to remain silent.