Post 57

There are critical periods during which aspects of children's physical, social, and psychological development are expected to occur. We are born with packages of potential which can be used in a manner supporting normal maturation or in ways that introduce distortion. Language acquisition and gender identification are believed to evolve during the same period, the child's first five years of life. From earliest infancy, the importance of these first months and years are critically foundational. Any who become same-sex attracted can carefully review that primary period of their lives and determine what factors may have negatively impacted their socialization. It could involve their mothers, fathers, siblings, or peers, the health of either parent or child, or the parents presence or absence. Alienating physical trauma may be present at or immediately after birth or prior to the onset of language development. Responses to trauma can be buried in the subconscious mind period. As noted earlier, after training in sociology, Edward Sagarin, father of the American gay revolution, became convinced that homosexuality was a pathological adjustment, an outgrowth of physical or relational problems experienced during early childhood.

     These types of events weaken children's value of themselves and, subsequently, their ability to be close to others. Wounded children hold themselves apart and fail to thrive relationally with parent or peers. Without some major emotional shake-up and reshuffling of the sense of self, they remain essentially prisoners of childhood.