Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity
Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity is a 1982 book about homosexuality by the psychologist George Alan Rekers, in which the author provides advice to parents to help them prevent their children from becoming homosexual. The book was influential, but has been criticized for Rekers's anti-gay stance.
 Cover | |
| Author | George Alan Rekers |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Homosexuality Parenting |
| Publisher | Baker Book House |
Publication date | 1982 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 170 |
| ISBN | 978-0801077135 |
Reception
Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity received a negative review from the psychologist Kenneth Zucker in Archives of Sexual Behavior. Zucker wrote that, as in some of his other work, such as Growing Up Straight (1982), Rekers ignored, dismissed, or distorted scientific data to prevent it from conflicting with his religious views. He noted that some of the material was controversial, such Rekers's discussion of his behavior as an expert witness in a child custody case, in which he testified against a lesbian mother seeking to regain custody of her daughters because her lesbianism "placed her children at risk for deviant sex-role development". Zucker criticized Rekers for ignoring scholarly literature suggesting that there is little evidence for such claims. He concluded that Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity is an example of "the passionate rhetoric that can be engendered by the study of human sexuality."[1]
The neuroscientist Simon LeVay commented that Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity reveals his "virulent antipathy towards homosexuality."[2] Jackie M. Blount found Rekers's "language and logic reminiscent of works from earlier decades", comparing Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity to Peter and Barbara Wyden's Growing Up Straight (1968). She wrote that the book was influential.[3] Ellen K. Feder criticized Rekers's work for lacking scientific credibility, describing Rekers's Growing Up Straight and Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity as "manuals for parents designed to assist them in deterring their children from pursuing a 'deviant' lifestyle."[4] The journalist Robyn E. Blumner of the Tampa Bay Times criticized Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity for Rekers's "gay-bashing" rhetoric, such as his claim that gay activists secretly want to legalize pedophilia.[5]
References
- Zucker 1984, pp. 387–390.
- LeVay 1996, p. 102.
- Blount 2006, pp. 161–163.
- Feder 2007, pp. 54, 112.
- Blumner 2010.
Bibliography
- Books
- Blount, Jackie M. (2006). Fit To Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791462683.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Feder, Ellen K. (2007). Family Bonds: Genealogies of Race and Gender. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195314748.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-12199-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Journals
- Zucker, Kenneth (1984). "Book Review". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 13 (4). doi:10.1007/BF01541910.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Online articles
- Blumner, Robyn E. (May 20, 2010). "Rentboy and gay adoptions". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)