Reflections on the Robinson article, Part 1

Dr. Robinson says that virtually all of his SSA patients (his language seems to imply that they are all men) had certain characteristics as boys, and that the absence of those characteristics just about infallibly indicates that they were "seduced," in the fullest sense, into the gay lifestyle.

These are the three characteristics: first, they are unusually emotionally sensitive; ... Second, they are unusually introspective ... of above average intelligence; third and most ironic trait ... is that they have an unusually strong sense of right and wrong, and an unusually strong desire to be right ... very broadly: to be right, to be worthy, to be righteous, to be normal, to be popular, to be liked, to be attractive, to be okay, to be talented, to be good looking.

The first two traits do mimic the traditional qualities that kids have long identified and singled out as proof that certains boys are "sissies" or "pansies," or, often without knowing what the terms meant, as "fags" or "homos."

But the third, what Dr. Robinson calls "the strong sense of right," is something I'd never come across before, but it's practically who I was as a boy. I judged everything as good or bad and I didn't spare myself. If I couldn't do something well, I didn't see the point in doing it at all. Nor did I ever have the slightest hesitation in telling my teachers or other adults that they were wrong if I thought they were. As a result, I gained a reputation as a know-it-all and bitterly resented any ensuing punishments (I can still name at least three such cases, 30 years later).