The gayest baby on the block
I don’t really know what makes someone homosexual, except that they’re wired to be attracted to someone of the same sex from birth. I haven’t studied it, and it’s just something I always accepted. Either you’re straight or you’re not. Period.
Here are some things that will not make a little boy “turn” gay:
carrying a purse
wearing pink
liking princesses
having painted nails
using pastel blankets
playing dress-up in pastel dresses, etc.
having gay parents
having straight parents
Anything else
I chose to list things for little boys because I don’t really see people telling little girls they will be lesbians if they play with trucks or wear blue. There is definitely a double standard there, but that’s something for another post.
You don’t turn a person gay. They are or they are not. The arguments behind claiming that wearing a certain color is connected to sexuality don’t even make sense. Your parents and their sexuality don’t determine the gender of the person you choose as a mate, either. If that were true, there would be no homosexual people because all straight people would have straight children.
I don’t mind if my sons do turn out to be gay. They can be anything they wish, as long as they’re honest with me and they’re happy in their own skin. I don’t see what it would hurt if nail polish did make a boy want to kiss another boy, but it doesn’t.
Little boys like to play dress-up just as much as little girls if they’re left alone and not told that it’s icky to do so. It really insults my beliefs and my intelligence when a stranger at the store makes a big deal out of my son’s green toe nails. He’s two. He doesn’t have gender hang-ups. He just wanted to participate in something the rest of us were doing. It makes him happy, and I was honestly pretty proud that he managed to sit in the big person chair long enough to get 10 toes painted without falling off.
I choose not to interfere in my kids’ exploration of sexuality, gender, or favorite colors, and along the way, I choose not to tell my son that he can’t play with a baby, no more than I would tell my daughter she couldn’t play with a truck.
I’m really getting fed up with society’s judgments of what makes a man a man. A good man takes care of his family (Mama would like a room with a view in the home, please), works hard, is honest, and does his very best to be a decent human being. That is the type of man I am trying to raise within my sons. If they learn to do it with painted nails and tinkerbell pajamas, or a baseball uniform and a bucket full of toads, I hardly see what difference it makes.
fivelittlekittens 
I get annoyed by the gender hangups people have. We faced a bit of that over the past few years with Mia. I didn’t pierce her ears and sometimes she just likes to wear jeans and a plain white t-shirt. When her hair was really short it was (I guess?) hard for people to tell if she was a girl *eyeroll* kids are kids. They aren’t really ANY gender (they just have the biological organs of either sex) until they start to realize that cognitively and even then gender identification isn’t the same as sexual orientation. Being gay doesn’t mean a man isn’t a man any more than being a man means that they’re guaranteed to be straight.
Mia likes playing with dolls, she also likes playing with dirt. She loves her dad’s toy airplane and loves helicopters, trains and building things. She also loves having her nails painted and pretty dresses.
None of those things makes her a “girl” and none of those things have any thing to do with whether she’ll like girls or boys, or hell, even be interested in sex at all. Because she’s 2.5. She’s not thinking about whether she likes to have sex with men or women, she’s not thinking about sex at all. Some days I don’t think she even cares that she has girl parts and she shouldn’t, really, she should just enjoy what she enjoys and be a kid.
Amen! And honestly, what difference does it make to some cashier in a wal-mart if my kid’s toes are painted? She said “Do you paint DADDY’S toes too?” so I said “I would if he cried hard enough.” She just looked at me. It’s none of her damn business. Just take my money and shut up.
Gender stereotypes suck, plain and simple and…even if a purse or painted toe nails “made” a boy gay, who gives a crap? All I want is for my kids to be happy, loved and safe in their relationship; I don’t care if it’s a man or a woman.
For sure! I don’t allow hate and ignorance to dictate how I raise my children.
I am starting to see people in public give my teen judgey looks. His nails are painted (today they’re blue, tomorrow who knows) and he wears shoes that have a heel (not especially girlie shoes, but not “boy” shoes. I’m afraid I am going to have to have a “come to Jesus” talk with some of the people in my town. You don’t look at my kid that way. He’s gay, he’s proud, and he has more courage than anyone. People are dumb. You are awesome!
I really admire your son. It takes a LOT of guts to be open about who you are at that age, even with minor things like liking a band nobody else likes. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him to allow himself to be openly gay in a high school setting. He’s the awesome one! (And so are you for being such a supportive Mama.)