Abstract
Jean M. Baker's book, How Homophobia Hurts Children, is mis-leadingly titled. This book does more than merely focus on how children's own views of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are influenced by misinformation about LGBT people, stigmatizing attitudes about nontypical sexual expression, and various kinds of victimization. When I started the book, I assumed Baker would point out how children's development—gender development, sexual orientation development, moral development, social development, and so on—would be influenced by homophobia. Such a “narrow” focus would be very interesting indeed, as most work on attitudes about LGBT people has concentrated on adults' views, and, more recently, on adolescents' views, but research has not focused on the impact of homophobia on those people who hold homophobic views or engage in homophobic acts. Researchers have been focusing mostly on the impact of victimization on the victims, not on others. So, for instance, we do not have research on how the parents of LGBT youth are affected by discovering their children are not heterosexual. Baker clearly understands that the ultimate challenge is to modify the attitudes and behaviors of future generations, and for this she has crafted the perfect primer on sexual orientation and sexual identity.
There are many strengths of the book. At first I assumed the book to be in the general “self-help” category, aimed at lay people with different motivations for becoming better informed. The book is this, and much more. Indeed, what is important about Baker's book is that psychologists and other mental health professionals, as well as, for instance, the “average” person whose daughter is lesbian, can profitably read it. For the first group, she has a commendable grasp of the available literature, both theoretical and empirical; for the second group, she also has much to offer, both as the mother of two gay sons and as a psychologist who has worked with many families facing these issues. Baker carefully presents very current psychological literature related to sexual orientation, without overlooking its shortcomings and without dogmatic commitments to particular conclusions. For example, she knows the research on the biological correlates of sexual orientation, presents its role in our current understanding, notes that many of the core studies have yet to be replicated, and treats the reader as if she or he could come to an intelligent appreciation of the complexity of the matter. Her more practical side then tackles the real-life consequences of the research. In this case, she says that there is much to learn about biological factors, but asks why a biological model would matter in our treatment of LGBT people. She fully understands the political and cultural conflicts being fought over the place of LGBT people in contemporary American society, and provides the reader with tools to “read” the research with the consequences for LGBT people in mind.
In addition to her useful review and translation of the literature into real-life terms, she departs from other work by explicitly using a developmental model of the evolution of sexual orientation. She considers the role of parents and families, including what it is like for families to “come out” as having a LGBT person among them. She describes the importance of schools in the lives of LGBT people, and addresses the often-ignored topic of “vicarious victimization,” the impact on a closeted LGBT young person of observing what happens to peers whose sexual orientations become public. Finally, she does not back off from addressing important larger social policy issues: LGBT people's right to marry, the “archaic sex laws” that criminalize consensual adult sexual behavior, the military's policy of requiring LGBT people to remain invisible, and the Boy Scouts' explicitly discriminatory policies. I can think of no other book written by a psychologist that so masterfully weaves together the different levels of influence on LGBT development. Baker has written a book from a developmental/community psychology perspective, a rarity, that is also a compassionate guide to dealing with LGBT people, whether in one's family, one's school, or one's community.
Baker also writes from the perspective of a mother of two gay men, one of whom has died of AIDS. Parents and family members who feel guilty about their own ambivalence toward an LGBT family member will be greatly helped by reading about her own shock at the revelation of her oldest son's sexual orientation, and the extent of her uninformed and misguided initial reactions. Reading how Baker coped with her son's death and progressed from indifference to advocacy provides the moving experience of a mother, who happens to be a psychologist, confronting issues many others have had to confront. Moving adeptly from autobiography to a clear and concise analysis of how Erikson's stages of development applies to sexual orientation (something no one else has done), Baker integrates the human and the theoretical, the ideographic and the nomothetic. She also demonstrates how the “personal” is “political,” how silence maintains homophobia, and the critical importance of engaging in social change efforts.
Finally, Baker is sensitive to gender differences. She appreciates how the past literature has framed LGBT development mostly in terms of male experience, and she shows how the evolving literature on female sexual orientation transcends such views. She has carefully read the literature and understands the differential treatment experienced by boys and girls and adolescent males and females. She links her observations to the gender differences research and creates a thoughtful synthesis that clearly recognizes the limits of our current understanding of gender.
All in all, Baker's book is a cram course in the field, and I recommend it highly. Readers who have read nothing about LGBT people will find this an excellent starting point for an orientation to LGBT issues, and even seasoned researchers will have much to gain from reading it. Those wishing more theoretical or more technical information on the research can find it elsewhere (e.g., Bohan, 1996; D'Augelli & Patterson, 1995).