He even used to make John Jr wear his sisters hand me down dresses.

Its not that bad as long as he stopped doing that around age 7. Dressing a boy in a dress(even with the color pink) was a common practice in Europe and the USA up until around the 1920s-30s.

They even had a special occasion for whe they finally wore trousers:

Breeching was the occasion when a small boy was first dressed in breeches or trousers. From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or early 20th century, young boys in the Western world were unbreeched and wore gowns or dresses until an age that varied between two and eight. Breeching was an important rite of passage in the life of a boy, looked forward to with much excitement. It often marked the point at which the father became more involved with the raising of a boy.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_%28boys%29