Couldn't agree more Dana, that mom is a hero in my book. 

Playng Devil's Advocate here, sort of.  Do you think the mom had a right to "out" the kid?  It's one thing to say, my son wanted to dress up as Daphne -- that's just gender play, girls dress up like boys, boys like girls -- it's quite another to say, "I don't care if he's gay..."

Why does a boy dressing up like a girl mean he's gay?  I never dressed up like a girl and I'm gay.  Why the association with drag? 

I'm glad the mom got the kid the costume he wanted, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure she should be discussing his sexuality on her blog.

 She didn't out him, what she said was:

" here’s the point, it is none of your damn business.

If you think that me allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to ‘make’ him gay then you are an idiot."

I think she hit on a key thing, the parents "kindly concern" was unwanted and was the only problem that day. The kids could care less about how he was dressed. But the parents did and they were the ones that would teach their kids "how wrong" that was at the dinner table, that is where it all begins. Kids aren't born homophobic, they learn it from their parents. These other moms may have thought they were doing the right thing, but after this blog, maybe they will look at what they did, as what it was, projecting negative attitudes onto a 5 year old, who just wanted to be a character for Halloween.

But I do think she could have accomplished the same thing by just telling this to the parents in private.

LOL well it could have been worse and he might have gotten his siblings name, which is "Squirt"

LOL -- Boo and Squirt.  Terrible. 

With that in mind, any uncomfortable family nicknames for anybody?  I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours!

I think what she was trying to say is she doesn't care what her kid's sexuality might be, not that she thinks he is gay.

But yeah, so many people don't understand that cross-dressing can be rooted in sexuality, but has nothing to do with sexual orientation.  Transvestite sounds too much like transsexual, I guess.  Uh, even though transsexual often has nothing to do with sexual orientation either.

I guess people don't like to think about such things, so they just don't think!

My mom wanted a girl so badly she actually bought a Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy costume for two of us to wear. When she got 3 boys she decided the costume wasn't going to waste and for a few years one of us had to wear that damn costume. Until we all point blank refused.

Best one though (and I realllllly wish I had pictures) was when my little brother was about six months old my mom dressed him up as a girl for halloween.

Odd thing about this story though; guys used to dress up as girls for a costume when I was a kid (for laughs) and nobody said anything. True, there might be some jokes about being gay but it sure wasn't assumed that the person was actually gay. It might be indicative but it isn't a definitive and it sure as hell isn't causal.

Tom I had a boring nickname: Kate. But I still want to know yours.

I say this with the bravery befitting somone who's completely over-compensated for it the rest of his life:

"Stork Legs"  (my mom's nickname for me)