The Sexes: Girlish Boys

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During the six years that Green has been working with his patients, many have shown a good deal of apparent improvement, but no definitive judgment can yet be made on his program. Nor can Green say for sure exactly what causes effeminate behavior. A number of factors have been found to be frequently associated with it, which is not to say that they are necessarily causes. One-third of Green's patients were abandoned by their fathers before the age of four, while most of the others live in homes where the mother is the dominant personality. In other cases, both fathers and mothers have encouraged feminine behavior in their sons as a cute but temporary phase.

Though Green's research is too new to have aroused serious professional criticism, it has prompted local Gay Liberation groups in Los Angeles to charge that Green is "tampering with the sexuality of delicate and sensitive children." Replies Green: "We're not interested in making swaggering John Wayne types out of these kids. All we want to do is make life easier for them and, frankly, open up more social options."