Opinion Brief

Should little boys wear dresses?

A huge online controversy ensued after a Missouri mom defended her young son's right to dress up like a girl on Halloween. What's all the fuss about?

The video: A Kansas City mother has "lit up the blogosphere" with a blog post entitled "My Son is Gay" in which she defends her five-year-old's choice to dress up as the female character Daphne from "Scooby Doo." (Watch a clip of the mother on the "Today" show, below.) The mom, known only as "Sarah," relates how her son's costume — a pink dress over purple tights and pink go-go boots, complemented by an orange wig — met with what she considers a chilly, judgmental reception from some of his classmate's parents. If you think, she wrote, that my "allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to 'make' him gay, then you are an idiot." And "if my son is gay, OK," she added. "I will love him no less." The mom's post has received over a million hits and more than 26,000 comments.
The reaction:
 This woman and her son are "awesome," says Madeline Holler at Babble. I'm not so sure, says Caroline Howard in Forbes. This is a "lesson in bad mommy blogging." Under the headline "My Son is Gay," she's "'outing' her little boy on the Internet," when he's just a five-year-old playing dress-up. That's missing the bigger point, says Sasha at Parenting.com. "She's not outing her son... but poking fun at the idea that a Halloween costume can make a 5-year-old gay." Watch the mother discuss the incident on the "Today" show:

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