When my son was 13 months old, we moved to Orlando - the land of Mickey Mouse! He was enthralled with the characters and even had a Mickey Mouse hat with ears. We loved the bright colors, so I found a rainbow pair of suspenders for him. I even found a pair for myself, with a rainbow pair of earrings. We used to wear them together. I wonder if those suspenders leaked their rainbow colors into his bloodstream?

As you can see, the reasons that some parents attribute to their child's same-sex attractions certainly can run to the ridiculous. Yesterday I was talking to someone and the subject was trans kids. She thought that being trans was a birth defect. It took me some while to convince her otherwise.

As I said, when kids come out their parents go through somewhat of a grief period. Then the crazy assumptions begin and they can think of the wildest things. It can range from "I cuddled him too much" to "he wore rainbow suspenders when he was a toddler." We must not allow these thoughts to take over. Rational science says that sexuality is inborn and we are what we are. I know I started this story tongue-in-cheek, but the reality is that we need to gather the correct information about our kids' sexuality. PFLAG chapters usually have libraries, and here in Indianapolis books can be found at OutWord Bound bookstore. Please parents, don't let your imaginations run wild. It will not do you or your GLBT kid any good.

By the way, you can still find me wearing my rainbow earrings at Pride events!