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Rating: 
Summary: Instead of this book, try....
Review: In my April, 1999 review of this book (somewhere among the reviews listed here), I said there were better books now available. Several people have e-mailed me asking me to be more specific. OK. I now recommend the following to my students. They are both excellent and different from each other (as the titles imply): Beyond Acceptance : Parents of Lesbians and Gays Talk About Their Experiences; Carolyn Welch Griffin, et al. Coming Out to Parents : A Two-Way Survival Guide for Lesbians and Gay Men and Their Parents; Mary V. Borhek
Rating:
Summary: Too Old For Modern Use
Review: It's obvious that this book was useful back when it was originally written, in the 1970s. But with the changing issues involving gay and lesbian youths in the 1990s, a 1970s approach isn't applicable. I bought this book as a guide to how to tell my parents. After reading the book for myself, I decided the book would do more harm than good, giving my parents a view about the gay lifestyle as one embodied in the 1970s, not the comfortable, main-stream life I lead today and believe most of my friends do also.
Rating:
Summary: This book is sadly out of date.
Review: This was a very important book in 1979 when it was first published, a book that I often recommended to gay/lesbian students who wanted to inform their parents. But the authors have been very lazy and have barely changed it in the 20 years since the first edition. I was disappointed in the second edition (1989) because it was virtually unchanged from the first edition except for an added chapter on AIDS and a minimally revised discussion of the PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) organization. The third edition is even worse. Again the first 9 chapters appear to be untouched. Even the AIDS chapter remains unchanged except for a 1 page postscript about "recent" treatments. The chapter is now such a "downer" in the light of recent developments that it will hardly reassure parents worried about their gay sons. Why not rewrite the chapter optimistically, with a warning that the crisis is not over and that safer sex is still a requirement? Less crucial but still disappointing is that the book is still quoting old Kinsey statistics on the incidence of homosexuality rather than using more reliable data from a recent national survey. The discussion of the nature of homosexuality is still based on sources over 30 years old. Nothing is said about recent data (and controversies) over the biological correlates of sexual orientation. Any parent who has read Time or Newsweek in the past 5 years would know more about these developments than they will find in this book. Maybe the personal stories of parents will still resonate with some families, mainly those who haven't been exposed to the mass media for 20 years. The most valuable part of the book may be the updated bibliography. But as long as you are already here at Amazon.com, why not just search here for "related" books? Or go to the pflag website for information, recommendations, and literature: www.pflag.org. So disappointing. It was such an important book, sympathetically written, and perfectly pitched for its intended audience. Shame on the authors (and their publishers) for such laziness!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly outdated for such an important book
Review: This was a very important book in 1979 when it was first published, a book that I often recommended to gay/lesbian students who wanted to inform their parents. But the authors have been very lazy and have barely changed it in the 20 years since the first edition. I was disappointed in the second edition (1989) because it was virtually unchanged from the first edition except for an added chapter on AIDS and a minimally revised discussion of the PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) organization. The third edition is even worse. Again the first 9 chapters appear to be untouched. Even the AIDS chapter remains unchanged except for a 1 page postscript about "recent" treatments. The chapter is now such a "downer" in the light of recent developments that it will hardly reassure parents worried about their gay sons. Why not rewrite the chapter optimistically, with a warning that the crisis is not over and that safer sex is still a requirement? Less crucial but still disappointing is that the book is still quoting old Kinsey statistics on the incidence of homosexuality rather than using more reliable data from a recent national survey. The discussion of the nature of homosexuality is still based on sources over 30 years old. Nothing is said about recent data (and controversies) over the biological correlates of sexual orientation. Any parent who has read Time or Newsweek in the past 5 years would know more about these developments than they will find in this book. Maybe the personal stories of parents will still resonate with some families, mainly those who haven't been exposed to the mass media for 20 years. The most valuable part of the book may be the updated bibliography. But as long as you are already here at Amazon.com, why not just search here for "related" books? Or go to the pflag website for information, recommendations, and literature: www.pflag.org. So disappointing. It was such an important book, sympathetically written, and perfectly pitched for its intended audience. Shame on the authors (and their publishers) for such laziness!
Rating:
Summary: This book is sadly out of date.
Review: Upon the recommendation of others, I bought this book; however, many better choices exist for parents dealing with the new knowledge that they have a gay child. This book's information comes from the 70s. Even though the book has been republished twice, the authors have done an inadequate job of keeping up-to-date. I'm sure the book seemed heaven sent in the early 80s, but not now.
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