n Android app which claims to be able to tell anxious mothers whether their sons are gay has been pulled from Google’s online store. The French and English-language app asks 20 stereotypical questions, such as ‘Does your son like to dress well?’ and ‘Does he like musicals?’ Another question asks users whether they hoped for a daughter before their son was born. Those who are told their child is probably gay are urged to “accept it”, while those with apparently heterosexual sons are told to look forward to grandchildren. An AllOut.org petition called for the product to be dropped while Andre Banks, founder of the petition website, called the app “outrageous” and accused it of promoting homophobia. The app’s creator is Christophe de Baran, who is said to be openly gay. The product’s developers, Enneme Moi, told the Huffington Post that the app was supposed to be light-hearted.…Does your son like football? Does he listen to music divas? Does he have a pierced nose? Your answers to questions like these — and about $2.69 — will tell you whether or not your son is gay. At least that’s what the makers of one French mobile app want you to think. “Mon fils est-il gay?”, or, “Is My Son Gay?” is being sold on Google’s Android Market, and is, as would be expected, stirring up quite a bit of controversy in France. Stéphane Corbin, a spokesperson for the LGBT Federation, told Rue89 that the app is “absolutely ridiculous.”When we look at the clichés and the prejudices involved, it could knock you on your back,” he said, according to a HuffPost translation. “What’s tragic is that they find themselves in exactly the field of homophobia by referring to the appearance … Gender questions are much more complex.” But Christophe De Baran, the creator of the app, said in an email to Rue89 that the purpose of the application is to help mothers accept their sons’ sexual orientation and that it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. “This application was designed with a light-hearted approach,” De Baran wrote to Rue89, according to a HuffPost translation. “It’s not based on any scientific approach. It follows the principle that certain kinds of behavior, certain social and domestic contexts might sometimes be determinant or or might reveal a hidden homosexuality, or might not.” The Local, an English-language news site in France, reports that Google France is currently reviewing the app. So far, the app doesn’t seem to be very popular. The French version has only five reviews and the English version has yet to receive any feedback on the Marketplace. This isn’t the first controversial mobile application to make claims about the gay community. In March, Apple removed an app from iTunes that the makers said used biblical teaching to help gay individuals become heterosexual. Just weeks ago, Apple removed “Jew or Not Jew?”, an app that allowed users to guess whether or not a celebrity is Jewish, from its French App Store. Like “Mon fils est-il gay?”, “Jew or Not Jew” was designed by a French company.
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