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OH MAN! I tried pinging you to this thread last night and forgot where the x goes in your name. I needed you here so bad.

I just came from a 4H meeting. All the boys there acted just like all the boys I saw at my daughter's school.

Mondays we have choir, Tuesdays Polish Dance, Wednesday are open for playdates or we can go to our senior's home with all the other homeschoolers, Thursdays our homeschooling group does educational fieldtrips, everyother Friday we have 4H. I'm two months into this and I need a little LESS socialization. I love having my daughter home, my near to four year old is reading and doing simple math and no teacher with less education than I have is calling my daughter "Pokey Nettie" because my daughter can't concentrate in a classroom full of chaos!!!!!!

Thank YOU to all the FReepers who helped my hubby agree that this was the best for our kids.

Well that was my homeschooling rant. I do not know a single homeschooler who's main purpose in life is to keep the children away from all other human beings. That is cliche and stupid. We are just more selective about who we see.

Conversion Therapy? Give me a break.

Let's see, both the American Psychological Association and the American Psyciatric Association have issued public statements against this kind of "therapy." There has NEVER been a study demonstrating that it works published in any major peer reviewed scientific journal.

And this quack Nicolosi has a PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology, essentially a diploma mill, and has no clinical training at all.

It's good to see that you're taking your children's socialization seriously. Do all these activities magically happen, or do they require some effort on your part? If you agree with the doctor that you should arrange peer interaction for your children, why did you get so upset with him for saying so? As I expressed in an earlier post to you, I realize that home-schoolers are frequently mischaracterized in a negative light. I suppose this puts you on the defensive. If the article had started with one of the many advantages to home-schooling, maybe your perception of the rest of the article would have been different. When you got to the first mention of home-schooling, and it dealt with one of the challenges, you immediately went into defensive mode. I think it tainted your perception of the rest of the article. I think it hung over your head like an anvil, preventing you from devoting your full attention to the rest of the article. It was the part of the article that illicited strong emotion, and therefor became the entire article for you. You analyzed the remainder of the article in relationship to the one segment that angered you. I think if you could clear your mind of the notion that everyone is either promoting or bashing home-schooling, you would realize this article isn't about home-schooling at all. It's about early childhood development of gender identity, and how that relates to homosexuality. Personally, I don't think one has very much to do with the other. I do agree with the doctor regarding the influences that affect a child's gender identity. It helps if the child is influenced by (& bonds with) feminine women, masculine men, and and a variety of children their own age. However, I don't think effeminate men or butch women are necessarily drawn toward homosexuality. I do see gay men exposing their feminine side for show, and lesbians exposing their masculine side for show. But in a casual environment where they aren't trying to display their homosexuality, they tend to settle back into the traditional role of masculine man or feminine woman. I've known a few effeminate straight men, and many masculine straight women. They will emulate the traditional gender role for show, for example a woman wearing a wedding dress and looking oh-so-feminine, but then in a casual setting revert to their more comfortable mannerisms. Confession time - I'm included in that group. I've been mistaken for a lesbian more times than I'd like to admit. Why? Because I usually wear blue jeans, a tee-shirt, and sneakers. I almost never wear make-up. In a social setting I'm usually more interested in the men's conversations than the women's. And of course that rides-her-own-Harley thing is a real killer. The funny thing is, lesbians don't mistake me for a lesbian. It's like they know that these little characteristics have nothing to do with homosexuality. Society in general seems to want to link blurred gender characteristics with homosexuality. I think they, and Dr. Nicolosi are wrong about that.