Box Turtle Bulletin

Jenna Bush’s HIV Book

Jenna Bush, daughter of the President, has penned Ana’s Story, a book for youth based on the life of a young woman in Latin America. The AP reports that it is better than might be expected:

Ana has a story worth telling.

Her life has been a struggle with poverty, abuse and prejudice. Her mother and aunt were raped by their stepfather, who infected them with HIV. Ana’s mother, father and infant sister died of AIDS before she finished sixth grade. Only her other younger sister, Isabel, escaped the disease.

Ana learns to keep her illness quiet at a young age.

“Life’s not fair,” her grandmother warns her. “If you tell, you’ll be treated badly. People will call you bad, ugly names. They will be afraid of you.”

If Bush’s book allows young people to become more aware of the tragic impact this disease has on our world then it is indeed a welcome addition.

Follow Up on Gay Camp

Earlier we reported on Camp Out, a logo program about a church camp for gay kids. Now WCCO.com has a local interest story about the camp. I’m happy to hear that the camp is continuing:

Each year’s session has attracted about 10 campers, most from the Upper Midwest but a few from other parts of the country. The organizers said that publicity from “Camp Out” is increasing interest in next year’s session. It aired for the first time in late July, on the night before this summer’s session, and Wiesner said he got a call that night from a teenager wondering if it was too late to sign up.

Insanely Inappropriate Children’s Book

I never really knew what was in Richard Cohen’s children’s book, Alfie’s Home.

But DormItem has pictures. From the graphics and language, it’s clearly aimed at small children – but the subject matter is not. It is totally cringe-worthy.

(hat tip to commenter Aaron at XGW)

The Artificial “Evils” of Gay-Straight Alliances

In his rush to decry the evils of Gay-Straight Alliances, Exodus’s Mike Ensley sarcastically asked the following:

Yes, because believing in Biblical principles and any alternative to embracing homosexuality is much more like child molestation than recommending erotica, pornographic movies and books that promote prostitution to minors, or giving them graphic instruction on dangerous sexual activities.

In a comment here at Box Turtle Bulletin, Mike clarified:

I was challenging the one who made the claim that “pro-family” leaders were child molesters with the fact that GLSEN (along with another teen-oriented gay site I linked to) does point minors to inappropriate materials.

But does GLSEN point minors to inappropriate materials?  And what then are these inappropriate materials?  And are they as Mike describes them?

Erotica – for this claim, Mike links to the Amazon listing for Rainbow Boys, a gay themed book for young adults by Alex Sanchez. I have read Rainbow Boys and there is no credible way whatsoever that this book can be described as erotica. There is nothing graphic in the book and while the language and themes are written so as to be familiar to today’s youth, this book is less objectionable than Catcher in the Rye or, for that matter, Atlas Shrugged, both required reading in my high school.

Pornographic Movies – here Mike links to a site called gayteens.org and the site’s link to an Amazon search engine. While each link may result in different movie options, the choices presented when I linked were:

• The L Word, First Season – this is a television show
• Imagine You and Me – rated R
• Will and Grace, Season Six – a network television show
• Queer as Folk – a Showtime television show
• Eating Out 2 – an unrated movie that is not pornography
• Better than Chocolate – an unrated movie that is not pornography
• Dante’s Cove – a television show
• Loving Annabelle – an unrated movie that is not pornography
• Tan Lines – an unrated movie that is not pornography

I agree that some of these choices are not appropriate for young teens. Some include sexual themes that are at least as graphic as some of their heterosexual counterparts. For example, Queer as Folk and the L Word are on par with The Sopranos as far a nudity and Eating Out 2 is similar to any other teen sex farce.

One movie is rated R and several, being arthouse movies, are unrated.  But none of the presented options are “pornographic movies”.

Books that Promote Prostitution – this is an Amazon link to Revolutionary Voices, a compilation of stories by gay teens.

I am unfamiliar with this anthology and do not know whether Exodus’ claim that it describes prostitution as an “empowering experience” is true. Somehow, I doubt this book champions prostitution. 

Ensley’s only link to GLSEN (“to minors“) references their recommended book list for grades 7 to 12. There were quite a few books listed, but I had heard of or read many of them. I looked through the list and did not see any that I was aware of that would be inappropriate for kids in their late teens.

I am familiar with the cultural offerings available to gays and lesbians. I browse bookstores and go to film festivals. Because of this, I immediately recognized Ensley’s “inappropriate materials” to be objectionable not for their adult content but solely because they are gay supportive.

I wondered whether Ensley was perhaps unaware of the nature of those things he listed and was sincerely repeating warnings that he had heard to his anti-gay audience so they could share his concern. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and dismiss the idea that he was cynically whipping up an artificial outrage so as to deliberately and deceptively create the impression that GSA’s were corrupting children.

Then I read his last link, “giving them graphic instruction on dangerous sexual activities.”

And any doubt that I had disappeared. Ensley linked to a “report” by MassNews, an anti-gay activist group that is best known for lying through their teeth. And the report? It was a rehash of the ever-trumpeted “fistgate”. This references an educational forum in Massachusetts in 2000 in which a panel moderator answered the questions of 16 year olds including a question one had about a sexual practice known as “fisting”.

What is interesting about this “scandal” is that there is no one in the gay community suggesting that this is an appropriate subject for a youth forum. Yet Ensley presents this as though it were common, supported, and somehow connected to GLSEN.

Is this an accident? Does Ensley not know this? Is there even a possible chance, however remote, that Ensley thinks that the material he referenced is pornographic or that GSAs support teaching about fisting?

To me it seems unlikely.

So the question remains:  Did Mike Ensley deliberately set out to present an argument which advanced the notion that GSA’s present inappropriate material so as to expose children to adult sexuality?  Did he choose to do so by making egregiously false claims about books and other materials and suggesting that GLSEN supports teaching children about unusual sex practices?

Only Mike Ensley knows the answers to those questions.  And only Mike Ensley knows whether he has sold his integrity so as to advance his political cause and has placed his culture war as a higher priority than his honesty.

PFOX Settles with VA School

PFOX claims it was discriminated against by a school that didn’t let them distribute propaganda claiming that gay people “can seek help and information in overcoming those feelings”.  The school claims that they don’t let anyone distribute flyers at high schools, period.  And now they’ve settled.

A settlement, reached last week, specifically states that PFOX will have the same access given to other groups and can submit fliers for distribution to middle and elementary school students if it wishes, said PFOX’s lawyer, Timothy Tracey.

It seems the terms of the “settlement” are that PFOX does not get to have preferential treatment at high schools.  But having won the right to do what they could do all along, PFOX is “considering” whether to distribute flyers to middle school students.

Gay Church Camp

One of my favorite weeks of every summer when I was a kid was spent at church camp.  Up in the woods away from family and surrounded by hundreds of other kids, this was a time for both spiritual growth and for bonding with other kids who believed just like you.

Logo is currently running a documentary called Camp Out, about ten gay kids from the midwest who got together in 2004 for church camp (Lutheran) and a chance to get to know other kids who were gay and who shared their faith in God.  I recommend that you watch this special if you can (it is available on the logo website).  It touched my heart.

Abstinance Only Programs Not Effective for Combatting HIV

A study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that Abstinance Only programs are not effective in reducing risk to HIV.  This is, to me, a no-brainer as such programs inevitably exclude any consideration of male gay youth.  “Wait until you are married… which will be NEVER” does not seem to me to be a particularly effective approach to encouraging responsible sexuality.

However, this report appears to be addressing heterosexual HIV risks:

Compared with no program, safer sex programs, and various other control programs, the abstinence-only programs did not seem to reduce HIV risk. Specifically, abstinence-only programs did not influence the rate of unprotected vaginal sex, the number of sexual partners, condom use, or initiation of sexual activity.

However, as I’m certain the current administration is aware, Abstinance Only programs are very effective at doling out tax money to certain religious and quasi-religious institutions to advance their doctrines about sex.

Run for your Life!! Lesbian Gangs on the Loose!!

For a good healthy dose of crazy, it’s hard to beat the ex-gays. But when you combine an ex-gay, World Net Daily, and Peter LaBarbera, you get enough crazy for a three ring circus full of clowns in big shoes and little cars.

Take, for example, the report by he-of-no-spin, Bill O’Reilly, about a national network of lesbian gangs (150 in DC alone) who were raping schoolgirls. In addition to being a national crime cartel, Bill’s reporter, Rod Wheeler, breathlessly tells him that a lot of their viewers will want to know that some of these lesbian gangs call themselves Pink Pistol Carriers.

Which would, no doubt, be quite a surprise to the actual Pink Pistols, a national gay and lesbian gun-enthusists group that is friendly with the NRA.

GLAAD took a little look-see and found that the report was, well, spinning faster than a tornado in a trailer park:

Gaithersburg, Md., Detective Patrick Word is President of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network, an intelligence-sharing organization of 400 criminal justice professionals in Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Virginia. He told the Intelligence Report, “there is no evidence whatsoever of a lesbian gang epidemic in this region…our membership reports only one lesbian gang.”

When confronted by the facts, Bill O’Reilly apologized because his reporter “got carried away” and had a follow-up segment in which he backed away from the earlier claims and allowed a representative from GLAAD to provide facts that shed a different light on the story.

But anti-gay gadfly LaBarbera knows things that the Gang Investigators Network and The O’Reilly Factor are afraid to tell. LaBarbera has access to (breathless pause) an ex-lesbian:

Having heard over the years of the fast-growing influence of lesbian gangs and their tactics of intimidation, LaBarbera said the reports, including an estimate of 150 attack squads in the Washington, D.C., region alone, were no surprise.

LaBarbera told WND he heard about the “lesbian bullying phenomenon” from former lesbian-turned-Christian evangelist Linda Jernigan, who was contacted by a teacher about speaking at a suburban Chicago where “this sick behavior was occurring.”

“Jernigan said she was told that lesbian girl gangs would drag a targeted female into the school restroom, hold her down, and perform oral sex on her to ‘turn her out’ – i.e., forcible ‘seduce’ the poor girl through lesbian rape,” he said.

And the only reason we don’t all quiver in our boots that marauding gangs of lesbians will attack us and subject us all to hours of lesbian sex is because of the evil homosexual lobby that controls all of the media. And though O’Reilly admitted that he isn’t afraid of being attacked by lesbians on the loose on the way to his car, he should be!!

“All they wanted to do was shut down the story,” LaBarbera told WND. “This epitomizes the selfishness of the gay activists.”

Now I don’t want to diminish any harm anyone has experienced as the victim of a lesbian gang. Any violence, bullying, or harassment should be immediately met with a concerted effort to see that the guilty parties are swiftly brought to justice. If there is a gang of lesbians that is harming schoolgirls, I encourage authorities to allocate resources to ending this swiftly.

But until such allegations are substantiated, sometimes you just have to sit back and laugh at the clowns.

Update: Rod Wheeler, Bill O’Reilly’s “Lesbian Gangs!!!” expert recants.

My Thoughts on the Conversion of a Previous Gay Activist

Michael Glatze was quite young when he became involved in gay activism and the gay community. And the gay world applauded him. He wrote for XY and then became the executive editor for GYA. He spoke on panels and received awards. He was a roll model and a young hero.

But time went on and his 20’s ended. And something changed. Michael began to see his life as empty and meaningless and, not unlike many before him, he looked for what set him apart from others whom he thought had better lives. Michael decided that it was because he was gay, and so he discovered himself “leading a movement of sin and corruption” and came out “from under the influence of the homosexual mindset”.

And today, Michael has done that which others who suddenly find a religious conversion have done. He wrote an article decrying the evils of homosexuality.

In looking at Michael’s column, printed in WorldNetDaily, some observations came to mind:

First, Michael has adopted the peculiar language of anti-gay activists. Although he lived for many years as gay, he cannot now use the word without quotes and instead must use “homosexual” instead. Other examples – of which there are many – include “the grip of homosexuality”, “the homosexual agenda”, and our old favorite “the Truth”. This article is not written to be understood by Michael’s previous audience, nor by the secular public. It is a “testimony” written in Christianese for a purpose.

Michael also hints at the “causes” that are favorites of the ex-gay and anti-gay movement: weakness, a missing father.  He even tries for Sickness! and Disease! – though the most he can come up with is intestinal cramps and an upset stomach.

Second, Michael provided some clues as to what his future plans are:

Homosexuality allows us to avoid digging deeper, through superficiality and lust-inspired attractions – at least, as long as it remains “accepted” by law. As a result, countless miss out on their truest self, their God-given Christ-self.

Poland, a country all-too familiar with the destruction of its people by outside influences, is bravely attempting to stop the European Union from indoctrinating its children with homosexual propaganda.

I think we can safely assume that Glatze will soon become the public face of some political anti-gay action.

I do not know Michael Glatze and perhaps it is unfair to speculate about the motivations for his conversion. Nonetheless, I think I have a guess as to why some, if perhaps not Glatze, find themselves leaving gay activism for anti-gay activism. It is because activism on its own is not fulfilling. And when you face a disappointment – or when you are no longer getting the attention that you once had – bitterness and anger can set in. 

Many of us have been fortunate to have been able to craft a life that involves many different components – professionalism, activism, spirituality, friendships, and much more. When we face a disappointment in one area, there are other things for us to do. But unfortunately, I have seen those who build their life around just one aspect, be it work or religion or politics, and when things sour – as they always will – there was no balance to give their life meaning.

And I think too often activists make this mistake. They have no life outside their insular world. There is no religion or faith to give perspective. There is no non-activist friend network, or family backup or other forms of getting away and seeing your life from the outside. And when a blow comes along that shakes your perspectives, there’s no one to turn to who isn’t part of the problem – so instead they turn to that which gives substance and validation to their bitterness and anger.

I don’t know if that is what happened to Michael Glatze. But I do know that we’ve seen conversions like his before. We’ve seen those who quite publicly “left the homosexual lifestyle” to step up anti-gay efforts… only to later quietly recant their anti-gay media blitz.

I wish Michael Glazte much happiness. If his conversion gives him meaning, then I am happy for him. But from what I’ve seen before, I fear he’s abandoned one cause for another. And when this new cause disappoints, I hope he will be able to reconsider his focus and his base and find a way to give his life a breadth of experience and meaning and find pillars that can hold him when he sees his new friends for what they are.

Transexual Children and Exodus

Paula Zahn NOW offers a chance to hear from people who matter, talking about the most pressing, most relevant and most essential topics of the day. – CNN

Tonight at 8:00 pm Eastern Time the people who matter will include Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International and Dr. Warren Throckmorton. Also interviewed were a board member of the Transyouth Family Advocates and her 7 year old affirmed female daughter. The subject matter will be

Boys who want to be girls, women who want to be men and gays who want to be straight. Uncovering changing attitudes and changing lifestyles.

Those who can, please tune in and report back. I, for one, am curious about the connection CNN is making between transexuality and religion-based reorientation efforts.

Exodus Continues To Associate With Vitriol-Spewing Bishop For Day Of Youth Prayer

(Advertisement posted by Exodus Youth on MySpace)

Exodus has joined a coalition of various religious right groups in some sort of vague day of prayer for youth or possibly sexual purity for said youth. Their website isn’t very clear and doesn’t even give a formal name for the event or coalition.

Included in that coalition is Wellington Boone Ministries. Let’s review what Boone had to say at the Family Research Council’s “Liberty Sunday” (official transcript) last October.

We know what a family is. My wife said to me this morning, she said, “Well, okay then. It’s sodomites because they’re not gays; it’s a misnomer. They’re sodomites.”

…If God calls homosexuality an abomination, if he calls it vile affections, if he calls it wickedness, I can’t call it inappropriate behavior. (Applause.) So if this is just a small matter, I’ll tell you what — let two women go on an island and a whole bunch of – all women, if you’re sodomites, go on an island, stay by yourself, all women, put all the men on another island – this is my wife talking to me this morning – let them stay. I’ll tell you what: “We’ll come back and see you about 100 years.”

I say Exodus is partnering with Boone again because at “Liberty Sunday” Exodus president Alan Chambers was the second speaker following Boone.

See my previous coverage of Boone at XGW.

Indiana Teacher Humiliated By School Board

This is one of the more sickening displays I’ve seen in a long time.

You may remember Amy Sorrell, the Woodlan, Indiana high school teacher and school newspaper adviser who was placed on administrative leave after allowing a student to publish an op-ed advocating tolerance toward gay and lesbian students. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette has a follow-up report (with the disgusting headline, “Sorrell’s job saved by compassion“) on a settlement that allows Sorrell to keep her job. She will be transfered to another high school and barred from teaching journalism for three years.

East Allen County Schools officials on Friday aggressively defended their actions during the last three months regarding the suspension and near-termination of Woodlan Junior-Senior High School journalism teacher Amy Sorrell. …

Superintendent Kay Novotny said the settlement was made because the administrators are compassionate.

“EACS senior administrators have been able to set aside their frustrations with the spin applied to this situation to give Amy Sorrell a second chance to prove, despite her relative youth and obvious inexperience, that she can make as great a positive mark on EACS education as the administrators whose reputations her comments and actions have helped tarnish,” she said.

Sorrell, like most school teachers, has limited financial means and cannot afford to lose her job.  That financial dependency no doubt lead to the most humiliating part of the settlement: She was forced to provide cover for the administration’s inept handling of the controversy by issuing an apology stating that none of her actions or comments “were intended to suggest that administrators… have been motivated by intolerance toward homosexuality.”

But did Novotny accept that humiliating apology gracefully? What do you think?

“(We) assume that her statement of apology was sincere and heartfelt and not some shallow, insincere statement made, with her fingers crossed behind her back, in order to save her job,” Novotny said.

Shameless. That woman is absolutely shameless. It’s incredible that an announcement of a settlement would be delivered with such continuing belligerence towards Sorrell.

Sorrell’s attorney, Patrick Proctor, described the school board’s position perfectly:

“They are blaming Amy for how they’ve been portrayed in the media, but they still haven’t accepted responsibility for any of their own conduct, and if there was anybody that was in a position to repair their own public image, it’s them,” Proctor said. “All they would have to do is issue a formal policy on tolerance regarding homosexuality and free speech, but throughout this they’ve failed to do that.”

Meanwhile, Megan Chase’s original essay won a superior award at Ball State University’s J-Day for student journalism.

Being Gay, Becoming Strong

I didn’t come out until sometime around my fortieth birthday. So I must admit a certain amount of envy when I read stories like this one from today’s New York Times.

Zach O’Connor knew early on that he was gay, even before he knew there was a word for it. He also knew that his classmates would’t consider this to be “normal,” which was a huge source of conflict for him. The pressure built until he could no longer contain it.

Then, for reasons he can’t wholly explain beyond pure desperation, …he told a female friend. By day’s end it was all over school. The psychologist called him in. “I burst into tears,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Yes, it’s true.’ Every piece of depression came pouring out. It was such a mess.”

That night, when his mother got home from work, she stuck her head in his room to say hi. “I said, ‘Ma, I need to talk to you about something, I’m gay.’ She said, ‘O.K., anything else?’ ‘No, but I just told you I’m gay.’ ‘O.K., that’s fine, we still love you.’ I said, ‘That’s it?’ I was preparing for this really dramatic moment.”

Ms. O’Connor recalls, “He said, ‘Mom, aren’t you going to freak out?’ I said: ‘It’s up to you to decide who to love. I have your father, and you have to figure out what’s best for you.’ He said, ‘Don’t tell Dad.’ ”

“Of course I told him,” Ms. O’Connor says.

Zach is very lucky to have such wonderful parents. He was also fortunate that his school system had a gay/straight alliance that he could attend. Now, he’s a seventeen-years-old high school junior and no longer needs the support he found in that club. What’s more, his grades are up, his self-confidence has skyrocketed, and he has a wide circle of male friends for the first time in his life.

I think it’s wonderful that more young people are growing up in an environment where there’s less stigma attached to being gay than when I was growing up. Like I said, Zach is very lucky. But even today, not all kids are as lucky as Zach. There are no accurate figures available, but according to one estimate some 20-40% of homeless youth are LGBT youth.

It’s important for all kids like Zach to know that their lives are valued, and they can receive support wherever and whenever they need it. When I was growing up, I never thought it was possible to live a well-balanced and fulfilling life as a gay man. Unfortunately, I’m a slow learner. Zach’s story is different. Maybe someday examples like his won’t be so remarkable.

Parents of Gay Sons Trying To Make Sense

Aveline, David. “‘Did I have blinders on or what?’: Restrospective sense making by parents of gay sons recalling their son’s earlier years.” Journal of Family Issues 27, no. 6 (June 2006): 777-802. Abstract available online at http://jfi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/6/777.

We live in a society that operates under what’s called a “heterosexual presumption” — in other words, we tend to assume that someone is straight unless we notice something to suggest otherwise (or unless that person comes right out and tells us). But since many gay people don’t exhibit traits that are stereotypically “gay” — and many others try to pass as straight — learning that someone in fact is actually gay can be quite a shock. Only then do we try to remember clues that we might have missed in the past to try to understand how we might have missed it. David Aveline examines this phenomenon in the June 2006 issue of the Journal of Family Issues.

Method

Dr. Aveline interviewed eighty parents of gay sons. He approached PFLAG, a gay-affirming group of parents, as well as groups that were not gay-affirming such as PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) and other organizations associated with Exodus International. He did this because he wanted to gather information from a wider range of parents since most previous research relied too heavily on gay-affirming parents. Unfortunately, he was only able to get two parents from the “disaffirming” groups. (One facilitator of an ex-gay ministry said that parents in his group were typically ashamed and reluctant to talk to a stranger.) PFLAG parents, on the other hand, were so supportive he had to turn some away. For this reason, this study cannot be generalized to the overall population of parents of gay sons.

Statistics

Out of this sample, 27.5% said they never suspected their sons were gay, although they were able to remember events which, in retrospect, “should have” clued them in. 62.5% said they not only suspected their sons were gay, but were able to give the child’s age when their suspicions first occurred. The remaining 10% had suspicions, but couldn’t pinpoint a time when they first suspected.

What Parents Remembered

Parents’ stories fell into three broad categories:

1. Revelations (“I never noticed until now.’): Reinterpretation of particular events in the past that they missed at the time but now believe were relevant.
2. Confirmations (“So I was right.”): Observations of earlier events led them to believe their sons were gay before their suspicions were confirmed.
3. Justifications (“How could I have known?”): Similar to Revelations, except parents gave specific reasons for discounting the meaning of earlier events (for example, their sons’ dating habits, interests in sports, or masculine appearance).

Some parents didn’t recall a particular event, saying only that their children were “different” from other boys. Only a few said they associated this “difference” with homosexuality at the time. Most said that they now took this “difference” to be a clue only in hindsight. Some parents noticed when their sons weren’t interested in sports (although this wasn’t true for all sons). Some noticed when their sons chose girls as playmates instead of other boys, while a couple of parents noticed when their sons expressed particular interests in other boys:

“But he just talked about this boy as a girl would talk about a boyfriend or something. And that’s when I just knew. There was just such excitement, you know. He was kind of giddy with this friend person, you know.”

“And I didn’t tell you this. He did tell me when he was in the fifth or sixth grade. He said to me, “Why do I think guys are cute and not girls?” And I said, “Well, I guess if they’re cute, they’re cute. You’re cute, so maybe you think they’re cute.” And I just… It just kind of went right over my head.”

Dr. Aveline however noted that very little of the reported “evidence” actually involved early homosexual expression. These two stories are notable exceptions.

Some parents thought their boys developed “too close” a relationship with girls, while others felt that their relationships with girls weren’t “close enough.” When their boys later reached their teenage years, some dated girls while others didn’t. Parents whose boys dated took it as confirmation that their sons weren’t gay after all. But parents whose boys didn’t date either suspected their sons were gay, or explained it away by citing a lack of time or money, being a late bloomer, or shyness.

Dr. Aveline concluded that although parents reported noticing atypical gender behavior, they often didn’t interpret it in terms of homosexuality. As mentioned at the start, we tend to assume someone is heterosexual unless we have very specific proof otherwise. One parents echoed this, saying “No one of my generation ever imagined that their child would be gay.” But when parents are confronted with proof that their sons are gay, they are then are left with the task of making sense of this new information. That’s when they turn to past events and begin a process of “second-level interpretation,” where they replace the original interpretation with a new one.

My Thoughts

Gender roles continue to play an important part of how we interpret homosexuality, despite the blurring of gender roles in society. As women continue to take on a greater range of gender roles, behaviors that were previously considered “masculine” are now accepted for men and women. The same is true for behaviors that are traditionally “feminine.” Parents are increasingly open to these less rigid gender roles, which explains how parents can discount atypical gender behavior in their sons before learning of theirs sons’ homosexuality.

But when parents are confronted with the newly discovered fact that their sons are gay, they tend to revert to more rigid ideas of “typical” gender behavior and seek out past clues based on those ideas. Whether these confirmations are legitimate or not is another matter. Ironically, most of these parents were perfectly able to accept their sons’ atypical gender roles before learning that they were gay. Only afterwards are these evidences taken as clues that their sons were somehow different.

But in fact, their sons are no different than before. What has changed is how parents look at their sons’ childhood activities and behaviors. Unfortunately, Dr. Aveline doesn’t explore whether this change in interpretation affects how these parents see their sons today. This would be an interesting avenue for future research.

Because these participants, by and large, were accepting of their sons’ homosexuality, it’s a shame Dr. Aveline couldn’t get better participation from Exodus or PFOX parents. It would be interesting to understand how parents who don’t approve or accept their sons’ homosexuality interpret past events.