Sadly, No brings us James’s Dobson’s instructions on how to tell if your son is gay:

Evidences of gender confusion or doubt in boys ages 5 to 11 may include:

1. A strong feeling that they are “different” from other boys.

2. A tendency to cry easily, be less athletic, and dislike the roughhousing that other boys enjoy.

3. A persistent preference to play female roles in make-believe play.

4. A strong preference to spend time in the company of girls and participate in their games and other pastimes.

5. A susceptibility to be bullied by other boys, who may tease them unmercifully and call them “queer,” “fag” and “gay.”

6. A tendency to walk, talk, dress and even “think” effeminately.

7. A repeatedly stated desire to be — or insistence that he is — a girl.

If your child is experiencing several signs of gender confusion, professional help is available. It’s best to seek that help before your child reaches puberty.

“By the time the adolescent hormones kick in during early adolescence, a full-blown gender identity crisis threatens to overwhelm the teenager,” warns psychologist Dr. James Dobson. To compound the problem, many of these teens experience “great waves of guilt accompanied by secret fears of divine retribution.”

Gee, James, you don’t think that fear of divine retribution could come from charlatans like yourself pushing a theologically dubious hatred of all things homosexual onto them , do you? More importantly, Dobson’s organization treats homosexuality as somethig that is not innate, something that could be changed. The implication is that gays can choose to not be gay. And the implication of that is that your 5 to 11 year old boy is choosing the wrong gender identity, which will cause them to choose homosexuality when they become adolescents. It’s insane.

It is more than insane — it is cruel. Dobson is telling parents that they must crush any child who doe snot conform to the very narrow notion that Dobson has of what a little boy should be. Any deviation from that template, even in children as young as five, is a dangerous sign of gender confusion, worthy of “professional help”. Dobson is allowing his own twisted readings of scripture and the bigotry those readings engender to warp his duty to protect children. He is so afraid of homosexuals that he is willing to crush little children’s sense of themselves and belief in their own personality to combat it.

If it wasn’t so dangerous, I could feel sad for Dobson, trapped in that twisted, stunted little world of his. But it is dangerous, and real children are going to suffer because of his demented attitudes.