Queer Kid Speaks to Other Queer Kids – Installment 1

Tonight my daughter suggested that we start a book for queer kids:

I want to write this because I want other people who are in my situation to know. I have my mother, but my mother had nobody, so I understand how hard it is to be understood.

If you’re my age and are reading this you probably already know you are gay or lesbian or transgendered or bisexual. It’s not one of those things you learn early on – I was 7 when I learned. But some kids learn at 5 because they have a crush on an older person.

I might not be the most perfect and you might not think I am stating the truth, but you should come out.

Here’s the way I do it:

I say, “do you believe in gay rights?” If they say “yes,” then it’s a step and you say, “I’m gay” or “I’m lesbian.”

If they say “no,” then you just drop the subject because you don’t want to tell haters.

I think that it’s important to let everybody know. But I’ve learned from experience that not everyone is open minded enough to see that we’re still people.

We deserve rights.

We want to be taught who we are. In sex ed we want to be taught what to do with our lives. I don’t want to learn about something I’m not. If they’re not going to give me a proper education, what’s the point?

Why do we learn about Martin Luther King and not Billie Jean King or Harvey Milk? It’s not fair. They’re not giving us the education we need. These people did great things. They are right up there on The Famous People List and they should be taught. They did something for our world. They didn’t just bring equality, but something new. They brought me. I don’t have to just be fighting alone. I am fighting with them.

I know I’m not fighting alone and for all of you who are reading this YOU AREN’T EITHER!

You should be learning about gay culture and who you are and we should get the right education. We don’t need to only learn about straight people. We want to learn about us. We want to learn about who we are!

I just want to stress to you how much we need to learn. I feel like we are alienated out, but we’re still part of this world. We aren’t aliens.

– daughter, age 10

In her own words.

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