This reminds me of my neighbors growing up. Their mom was my babysitter. One of those boys is the same age as me, he was my absolute bestfriend. He has a brother that is a few years younger than us. When we were younger the boys absolutely could not play with any of my girly toys. I was a tom boy and had a ton of boy toys but the few girly toys I had, no way they could touch them. Why? Because it might make the boys like boys.
2 years ago, the younger brother finally came out and said that he likes boys. The parents did everything they could to not have a child like this. Obviously it wasn't the barbies that did it because he wasn't aloud to play with them. It just goes to show that we shouldn't identify our children's clothes, toys, sports and anything else just based on gender.
Let kids be kids and let them choose to be happy
It's so painful to hear about kids/or witness them being pushed like that when they are so young and so curious and so open to anything! I hope your friend is ok!
It is sad. My family knew he would do it one day as I'm sure his did as well. We were so happy to hear that he came out because we knew he was finally happy. He waited until he left for college I think because of the fear from his parents.
I'm glad that I was never forced to be a girly girl. I would have hated my childhood. I played with mud pies, worms, dirt and toy trucks! I loved every minute of it.