The Social Organization of Sexuality. Sexual Practices in the United States

PSYCHIATRIC SERVIcES . February 1996 Vol.47 No.2 205 ture, doubting hen adequacy as a parent, and feeling isolated in what she at first believed to be a unique situation, Dew describes an initial attempt to nun away from society and to hide in order to protect her son, her family, and herself. “Our house had taken on the dimensions ofa single closet, and a closet is no place like home.” The author gives exacting attention to her efforts to integrate her son’s newly disclosed identity into a redefined relationship. Mother and son’s ultimately successful attempts to help one another come to terms with Stephen s sexuality, starting from mitial faltering missteps, are chronicled with dialogues that read almost like process recordings, so vivid are they in their detail. Drawing on hen own initial reaction to her son s homosexuality, Dew confronts the homophobia imbued in our culture and the toll it takes on gay children who struggle to keep their stigmatized identity a secret to avoid