by an invert very much on a level with
the acquisition of a vice, but probably it seldom succeeds in eradicating
the original inverted instinct.[257] What usually happens is that the
person becomes capable of experiencing both impulses,--not a specially
satisfactory state of things. It may be disastrous, especially if it leads
to marriage, as it may do in an inverted man or still more easily in an
inverted woman. The apparent change does not turn out to be deep, and the
invert's position is more unfortunate than his original position, both for
himself and for his wife.[258]

It may be observed in the Histories brought forward in chapter iii that
the position of married inverts (we must, of course, put aside the
bisexual) is usually more distressing than that of the unmarried. Among my
cases 14 per cent. are married. Hirschfeld finds that 16 per cent. of
inverts are married and 50 per cent. are impotent; he is unable to find a
single cure of homosexuality, and seldom any improvement, due to marriage;
nearly always the impulse remains unaffected. The invert's happiness is,
however, often affected for the worse, and not least by the feeling that
he is depriving his wife of happiness. An invert, who had left his country
through fear of arrest and married a rich woman who was in love with him,
said to Hirschfeld: "Five years' imprisonment would not have been worse
than one year of marriage."[259] In a marriage of this kind the homosexual
partner and the normal partner--however ignorant of sexual matters--are
both conscious, often with equal pain, that, even in the presence of
affection and esteem and the best will in the world, there is something
lacking. The instinctive and emotional element, which is the essence of
sexual love and springs from the central core of organic personality,
cannot voluntarily be created or even assumed.[260]

For the sake of the possible offspring, also, marriage is to be avoided.
It is sometimes entirely for the sake of children that the invert desires
to marry. But it must be pointed out that homosexuality is undoubtedly in
many cases inherited. Often, it is true, the children turn out fairly
well, but, in many cases, they bear witness that they belong to a neurotic
and failing stock;[261] Hirschfeld goes so far as to say that it is always
so, and concludes that from the eugenic standpoint the marriage of a
homosexual person is always very risky. In a large number of cases such
marriages prove