A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality

by Joseph and Linda Ames Nicolosi, InterVarsity Press,
ISBN 0-8308-2379-4, 2002, 254 pages

Is homosexuality something one is born with, is it a learned behavior, or is it both? This is an issue that is at the bottom of almost everything that is being debated about homosexuality. We have maintained for 38 years in this journal that gays are victims and need to be treated with compassion and concern. The question is whether the victim's status is due to abuse heaped on people who were born with a condition they can do nothing about or whether the victim's status is because of abuse that was heaped upon the person which caused him or her to become a homosexual.

Dr. Joseph Nicolosi is a Ph.D. in psychology and the president of the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. He and his wife have written several books on this subject and are recognized as authorities. This book deals with all of the issues in a kind and positive way and is heavily documented to answer the questions which continue to be raised about homosexuality. One of the most useful things in this book is the discussion of Simon LeVay's book The Gay Brain and what LeVay actually said. Gays continue to maintain that LeVay proved that homosexuality was genetic in nature, and LeVay admits that is not the case. The fact that genes may make a person vulnerable to homosexuality is not contested in this book, but the notion that homosexuality is genetic is clearly shown to be false.

The thrust of this book is to help parents in dealing with their children's sexuality. One chapter is titled "the prehomosexual boy" and another "from tomboys to lesbians." These are informed, useful, intelligent discussions of the real world and how to deal with it. There is a diary of the mother of a gender-disturbed boy, and frank discussions of the politics of homosexuality. This book is being widely acclaimed in the academic community as a groundbreaking book. It is the best thing we have seen on a practical level for dealing with the challenges of homosexuality on a personal level. We recommend it highly for that purpose.


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