Country United States Media type Print (Paperback) ISBN 978-0802401564 Subjects Homosexuality, Parenting | Language English Pages 158 Originally published 1982 Page count 158 | |
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Growing Up Straight: What Every Family Should Know About Homosexuality is a 1982 guide for parents, by George Alan Rekers, on how to prevent their children from becoming homosexual. The work received mainly negative reviews.
Reception
Growing Up Straight was influential. However, the viewpoints espoused in the book have been controversial. Professor Michael R. Schiavi wrote in a 2001 Modern Language Studies journal article that the work was a "horror show written for parents anxious to re-direct sissy sons to sexual righteousness". Journalist Frank Rich questioned the book's status as scholarship in The New York Times, writing that "many of the footnotes cite his own previous writings." Psychologist and sexologist Kenneth Zucker reviewed both Growing Up Straight and Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity in a 1984 issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior and criticized both works, stating "In summary, both GUS and Shaping represent examples of the passionate response that can be engendered by the study of human sexuality. In this instance, religious rhetoric is used to defend the author's views on the subject. What is perhaps most disappointing about these two books is the idyllic view of family life and human conduct for which the author longs." Zucker went on to write "Ultimately, one has to wonder how Rekers will feel toward his child patients, should they grow up not to be straight. He might well benefit by recalling the words of Harry Stack Sullivan: "We are all much more simply human than otherwise."
In contrast, Fundamentalist Journal gave the book a positive review.