It seems that some parents worry about how to explain the existence of gay and trans people to their kids.
It’s trivially easy.
“Sometimes, men love men. Sometimes, women love women. Sometimes, people find out that although they have a man’s body, they’d be happier living as a woman - or the other way around.
All these people deserve to be happy and respected, just like you.”
And that’s really all there is to it.
Kids, unless they’re seriously bent out of shape, have a strong sense of fairness. They’re also always busy learning about how the world works.
They instinctively understand that all people should have the same rights, even when they’re somehow “different”.
And kids know that everyone is a little different (or a lot). It’s just how things are. Gay and trans people are just one more kind of “different”, and all kinds are fine.
A while ago I was talking with my 13yo about #trans people and gender. After getting the basics out of the way, we quickly agreed that that having just the two traditional (western) genders doesn’t really help us to make sense of the world we see before us.
The kid just shrugged and said “well, everyone’s somewhere in between on most things, aren’t they?”
And that was that.
@slothrop here is an extremely cute example of this in video form from a famous trans man youtuber:
@slothrop That's way more complicated than it was for me.
"Does he have a girlfriend?"
"He has a boyfriend."
"Are they going to get married?"
"Maybe."
"I'm going to wear my Rainbow Fairy Dress to their wedding."
"I'm sure they'd like that."
*runs off to catch frogs*
"Love is love, and we are not its judge, or its master."
SearingTruth
@slothrop I can't say I've struggled myself. Kids generally "get" things better than adults, because they've not had bullshit rules foisted onto them.
Take what I say with the grain of salt that I'm a bi single dad, and they've been exposed to a LOT of LGBTQIA+-friendly media 😁
@slothrop Exactly.
Also children will likely accept that simple yet true explanation...
They will however hate adults if they lie to them!
@slothrop Yeah! My 6 year old has no problems understanding gay/lesbian couples, or her trans femme pangender mom, or even her agender pibble. She even corrects people who misgender them.
Although when she tells people she has 2 moms and 2 dads, she doesn't really clarify that I am 1 of the moms and 1 of the dads, for a grand total of 3 parents.
I don't understand why children need the existence of gay and trans people explained to them, unless they ask a question. Chances are they're not going to question their existence unless adults make a fuss. Gay and trans people just are, just like all humans.
As a child, my mother had a handful of gay acquaintances through a theater group. The only reason I knew they were supposed to be "different" was because of comments adults made about them that I happened to overhear.
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