Letters to the Editor

Friedman and Stern's paper, “Juvenile Aggressivity and Sissiness in Homosexual and Heterosexual Males,” published in the July 1980 issue of The Journal, makes the needed attempt to identify further the reputed group of one-third of homosexuals that gives no history of effeminacy. It raises, however, many questions in regard to its methodology and conclusions. I shall take up a few of these questions.

The authors assume that the information given by their homosexual subjects at an average age of 31 years, that they had always been free of effeminate behavior, can be accepted at face value. The absence of such behavior is, of course, the critical issue. Effeminate behavior may be expressed in a variety of ways, and becomes apparent as early as at two years of age. Manifestations such as cross-dressing, preferring to play with girls at their games, expressing a desire to have been born a girl, and others, may disappear in some by about 8-9 years of age, while other symptoms, such as a dislike for boys' games and sports (which the authors would include in their definition of “rough-and-tumble activities”), may persist longer. With other children they become “bossy,” very much like little girls playing teacher, and because of different interests, they alienate other boys and end up as “loners” at a very early age. The later behavior of the authors' homosexual subjects, as juveniles and preadolescents, would argue for a continuation of such a pattern rather than reflect a normal early childhood, as these subjects claimed for themselves.

As further concerns the specific question of effeminacy, which, if “manifested,” was reason for exclusion as a subject, the authors do not say how they could be sure of detecting it even if present at the older age. In a followup of effeminate children , some first seen as early as 4 years of age, and all with a history of and manifestations of effeminacy, it was difficult to be sure of the presence of effeminacy in adolescence. It is known