Song wrote at the request of a lesbian mother trying to raise her 9-year-old son amidst the  pressures of (toxic) masculinity. The song took off in the late 1980s when The Flirtations picked it up. The Flirts, as they were affectionately known, billed themselves as (and were indeed) the world’s most famous, openly-gay, all-male, politically active, multicultural, a cappella singing doo-wop group.