I grew up as what might be described in Ms. Hoffman’s color palette as a purple boy – a little pink, a little blue. Maybe leaning towards the chartreuse. I liked some boy things, like camping out and making fires and shooting my brother’s B-B gun; but I never liked competitive sports, and I liked playing piano and watching modern dance a lot more.

A few years ago, at an after-work bacchanal when a bunch of co-workers were confessing some pretty explicit sexual experiences, something inspired me to blurt out that I believed that most people are naturally a little bit bi — it’s really just a matter of where one falls on the spectrum. Co-worker #1 gave me a look of complete shock. Co-worker #2 (still a close friend) gave me a warm smile. To this day he still gives me a wet kiss (on the cheek) every time I see him. What matters to me is that he is a friend. I have never been *completely* sure that I would not want to test these waters (my girlfriend thinks it’s pretty cool that I described Javier Bardem as “gorgeous”), although I don’t think so. But this uncertainty doesn’t bother me. I am confident in the belief that some degree of ambiguity is normal — and healthy.

I have spent some cash on therapy around all this, to be sure; but it was an accepting woman, not a shrink, who made me realize that this isn’t a problem. We are one of the most diverse nations on earth. And one of the last tolerant of differences. Go figure.

Even back then, it made me sad. There we were, each playing games at the other person’s house that we didn’t have another outlet for – but the difference was, as the article said, that no one turns their nose up at a tomboy, but everyone would have teased or even beaten up my friend for playing Barbies. Kudos to the parents who are brave enough to pave the way for their sons to become the people they really want to be. Barbies or no Barbies.