I agree that the preference to be one or the other sex is quite different from being attracted to one or the other sex. I had no interest to the point of zero awareness of the sexuality of my companions until I was about fourteen. I was only interested in science and chose my friends who had similar proclivities. It happened that most but not all of them were male. It was only when I was fifteen that a female member of our group who was both far more mature and more intelligent than I, jolted me out of my innocence. I could probably have gone another two or three years of not seeing sexual attractiveness in anyone if it hadn’t been for her. 
As such, I find that picture incription to be that of an adult interpretation of both a kid’s liking his friends who happen to be male, and the kid’s trying to make sense of the adult converstions his parents and their friends have.
Occam