Isay believes that these dynamics can prevent adult gay men from forming long-term romantic bonds. Mothers who enjoy the sensitivity and shared interests of gay sons may lean too much on them, using them to fulfill their unmet emotional needs. He believes that the social acceptance of homosexuality “has not filtered down to the way homosexual boys are raised.” Fathers tend to criticize or shun sons who dislike rough sports, play with dolls or otherwise prefer stereotypically feminine pursuits. The main, though not the only, source of their distress, he thinks, lies in the ways their parents treated them as children. Many gay men are still suffering, however, said Isay. “There’s much more social acceptance than there was 20 or 30 years ago,” said psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Richard A.
Homosexuality has not been considered pathological by mainstream psychiatry since the 1970s, and in the years that followed, gay couples have begun to acknowledge their partnerships publicly. The night in June 1969 that gay men fought police raiding the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village marked the beginning of wider acceptance of male homosexuals.
