A Kansas City, Missouri woman who allowed her 5 year old son to dress up as a female character from a television cartoon — Daphne From “Scooby-Doo” — for Halloween, and who had written a blog rant touched off by the severe criticism she and her son received at the Christian pre-school he attends, has caught the attention of the world.
The woman, identified as only as “Sarah” to protect her family’s privacy, appeared via phone Friday morning on CNN defending her decision on her son’s choice of a Halloween costume.
Also appearing with her, in the studio, was Dr. Jeff Gardere, who in addition to having a private practice in Manhattan is a noted popular personality in the media, often referred to as known as “America’s psychologist.”
Gardere, who took “Sarah” to task for allowing her 5 year old to dress in the opposite gender costume, prefaced his remarks by saying “it’s the worst nightmare” of both heterosexual and gay couples “to have to fathom that their child might be gay.”
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He also said that the negative reactions from the minority of the other mothers upon witnessing the child in costume was “normal.” Dr. Gardere also said that he felt that her writing about the incident on her blog amounted to “outing” her son.
Sarah defended her actions saying that first of all in her estimation the word ‘Gay’ hade two meanings, one being “happy” and that from the picture of her son that was displayed in the blog post you could tell that he was “thrilled.”
She scoffed at the notion that her 5-year-old son could possibly make a conscious decision about his sexuality at that age. When asked about her husband’s view point of the issue, Sarah said that her husband, a police officer, was 100 percent in support and favor of her actions and their son.
Gardere, who highlighted the recent teen suicides within the LGBT community, did commend Sarah for standing by and supporting her son’s choices.
Sarah’s blog, [ Linked Here ] has gone viral with over a million hits and more than 30,000 comments, the majority according to her being supportive or giving thanks.
