Country United States Pages 265 Originally published 1968 Subjects Homosexuality, Parenting | Language English ISBN 978-0812810721 Page count 265 | |
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Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) | ||
Growing Up Straight: What Every Thoughtful Parent Should Know About Homosexuality is a 1968 guide for parents, by Peter and Barbara Wyden, on how to prevent their children from becoming homosexual.
Contents
Summary
The Wydens offer advice for parents on how to prevent their children from becoming homosexual. A popularization of psychoanalyst Irving Bieber's theories about homosexuality, their book contains an introduction by Stanley Yolles, then director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which concludes, "with broadened parental understanding and more scientific research, hopefully the chances that anyone's child will become a victim of homosexuality will eventually decrease."
Journals
James Colton reviewed Growing Up Straight negatively in Tangents. He ridiculed the Wydens' advice on how to prevent homosexuality, and accused them of making contradictory and inconsistent claims and of citing experts such as Evelyn Hooker and Judd Marmor only when it served their purposes to do so.
Evaluations in books
Neuroscientist Simon LeVay wrote that Growing Up Straight is an example of psychoanalytic ideas influencing general attitudes toward homosexuality. Reparative therapist Joseph Nicolosi wrote that Growing Up Straight has been seen as a classic.