ABSTRACT
Parents of young children may have concerns about homosexuality that are expressed by discouraging "sissiness" in boys and "tomboyishness" in girls. Parents raise their children on the assumption that they will be heterosexual, presenting only a heterosexual role model for life and mating. Parents are strongly supported by the larger culture in this regard. Most gay men and lesbians report with adult hindsight they knew something was "different" about them when they were growing up. At the same time that sexual feelings become overt and children begin to feel they cannot talk about these feelings, the peer group begins to replace parents and family as the primary source of information and force of socialization. Most homosexual youths, on the other hand, generally have no peer group in which they can begin to learn about and understand their "different" romantic feelings.
