Is Your Son Gay? App Stirs Anger

A new app on the Android is making some gay-rights groups angry. The app is a quiz – 20 questions long – that claims to predict whether or not a child is gay. The questions are aimed at the parents of young boys, and contains questions such as “does he like musical theater” and “is he neat?” These questions all reflect stereotypes about gay man.

An e-mail has been making the rounds, as well as a Facebook status encouraging people to sign a petition to oppose this app and tell Google to pull it. Those who oppose the app claim that it promotes stereotypes against gays, and declare that the app implies that gay people are weird and that parents who have gay children have done something wrong to cause them to be gay. They claim that the app is homophobic and is a promotion of discrimination against gay teens and adults.

The petition to sign in order to encourage Google to pull this app is at: http://allout.org/en/actions/androidapp

Gays and lesbians have to fight stereotypes in society, and things are particularly hard for young gay and lesbian people. They are more likely to be bullied than straight people, and have a higher suicide rate as teenagers. Recently there’ve been a number of suicides of gay teens that have been blamed on bullying from peers. Those who support gay rights claim that this app adds fuel to the fire of homophobia by giving stereotypes legitimacy and implying that there is something wrong with being gay. They argue that being gay is not a choice and that 10% of the population is attracted to members of the same sex. Being gay is perfectly natural, and gay people have a right to live a life free of harassment and discrimination. Therefore, many people oppose this app.