Homosexuality: an effeminate beginning?

Do effeminate boys become homosexual adults? Psychiatrist Richard Green has identified a pattern of development including an early, intense desire to be a girl, that may help explain why a majority of the so-called "sissy boys" in his 15-year study later became gay or bisexual.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Green began extensive interviews and psychological tests on a group of 66 extremely effeminate boys and their families. All had been referred to him by other professionals. In most cases, the parents had become concerned about their sons playing with dolls, dressing in girls' clothes or playing exclusively with girls. Of the 44 boys with whom Green has stayed in touch (most are currently in their early 20s), three-quarters now say that they are homosexual or bisexual. For comparison, Green also gathered information on a similar group of more typically masculine boys (only one of whom has become bisexual).

It was clear to Green from the outset that the boys were not just "sissies." Although many were called that by others their age, these boys were different from other effeminate boys because they also actively wished that they were girls. A teacher contacted one boy's parents when he lined up with the girls in his kindergarten class to go to the water fountain. Another mother became alarmed when her 8-year-old showed her how he could hide his penis between his legs. "Look, Mommy, I'm a girl," he said.

Green agrees that the findings from his study could easily be misinterpreted. "I could frighten some parents of young boys," he says. "A boy's occasional dressing in girls' or women's clothes, playing with dolls, making believe he is a mommy, playing games with girls, or having no interest in rough-and-tumble play and sports" does not necessarily mean he will grow up gay.

Similarly, although no one parenting style predicted whether the boys became homosexual, certain threads were common in many of their lives, Green says. Some of the parents had wished for a girl instead of a boy and had subtly encouraged their young son to dress as a girl or dressed him that way. Some parents of effeminate boys who grew up to be gay had remarked that their son "would have made a beautiful girl." Many but not all of the homosexual men had spent less time with their fathers in the early years. Many also had serious illnesses in childhood.

Because of the special nature of the group and because of an enormous variety of complicating factors, Green is reluctant to make sweeping conclusions about whether effeminate boys grow up to be gay. But he does believe that the general pattern of these boys' early lives might hold true for others like them.

Green recognizes that some people might be tempted to use the findings from his study as a blueprint for raising "straight" children. But he cautions these overzealous parents: "The data do not tell us . . . how to maximize the prospects of a heterosexual adulthood. There is far too much variability." -Jeff Meer

Richard Green, M.D., is at the University of California, Los Angeles. His study was published as The "Sissy Boy Syndrome" and the Development of Homosexuality (Yale University Press, 1987).