Coming Out Too Early?

Posted: February 21, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: In the Press, Post, The life of a parent | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

That just isn’t the right question to be asking. I read this really great article: Are Kids Coming Out Too Early. E. Winter Tashlin writes:

The Huffington Post ran a piece a few days ago from Amelia, a mother whose 7yr old son recently declared that he was gay. It was a lovely essay about love and acceptance, with a bit of parental concern in there too. The parents are being supportive of his identity, while at the same time, understanding that what he feels at seven may or may not be how he feels in the months and years to come. They seem quite content to take him at his word and see what does or doesn’t change with time.

There have been quite a lot of people on internet message boards saying that this is ridiculous, that this child can’t know at such a young age that he is gay. I’ve seen this particularly on LGBT message boards, where people are holding up their own coming out at older ages as proof that seven is “too young.”

Now I will grant that I didn’t know that I was gay/queer at seven, but not because I didn’t like boys. My best friend in 2nd grade was a boy named Noah, and I distinctly remember thinking that I wanted to grow up and marry him. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as “gay” at the time, but if I had, I would have considered myself to be so. Certainly by 4th grade I was having serious crushes on boys in my both school and religious community, although I knew to keep those thoughts private.

I don’t know if this boy will continue to ID as gay as he gets older, no one really can. But the idea that all kids are heterosexual until proven otherwise is starting to crack up.

It isn’t “prematurely sexualizing” a child to consider their orientation. After all, children’s books, movies, and family conversations, even at a young age, involve questions of marriage and relationships, just nearly always from a hetero-presumptive stance.

I recommend reading the entire article because he makes an interesting points about how some members of the LGBT community may find kids coming out a PR problem.
However, for me the take away from this article is:
  • when kids come out we support them.
  • any announcement of coming out IS NOT some sort of binding decision a parent or guardian should ever hold their child to in the future.
  • our society is changing and the assumption that all kids are straight (or should pretend to be so) just doesn’t apply anymore–not only was this inevitable with the strides that the LGBT community has made over the past 75 years, but hopefully it was a goal.
  • kids now say they are gay at earlier ages because they have the language to describe how they feel AND they are living in families that they believe won’t invalidate them, disown them, or send them to an institution.
  • supporting/accepting/validating a young kid who says they are gay is in no more “prematurely sexualizing” than saying to your six-year old daughter, “yes, Jenna when you grown up you can marry Michael if you want to” is prematurely sexualizing.

Guide & Follow

Posted: February 19, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: The life of a parent, The life of a queer kid | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

To My Kid:

I support you as you evolve. It is such a privilege to share this journey with you. I’ll do my best to guide or follow in uncharted territory.

I’m sad for those who can’t accept that. I’m angry at those who try to invalidate you.

My job is to nurture you and protect you. My job is to make you strong enough to fight for your truth and loving enough to nurture beauty in others.

Endure and flourish, my love.

 

A Must Read!

Posted: February 16, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: In the Press, Post, The life of a parent, The life of a queer kid | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t Miss this Post: When Your 7-Year Old Announces ‘I’m Gay’.

“When Your 7-Year Old Announces ‘I’m Gay'” Huffington Post author “Amelia” on Michangelo Signorile show today, Friday, February 17, 2012 at 4:30pm EST. On Ch. 108, OUTQ SiriusXM. Free trial of SiriusXM online available.

Reflecting LGBT/Gender Queer Kids

Posted: February 16, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: In the Press, In the Schools, In the world | Tags: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

I continue to hunt for good books for LGBT/gender queer kids and tweens. I am looking for books that celebrate their identities or at least make their identities a part of a story that is not about overcoming/surviving bullying/self-hatred/family rejection.

Today the Huffington Post published an article Dreaming of Dresses: Transgender Books for Children. The author B.J. Epstein is spot on when she writes about the need for more books for the five to twelve year-old set.

I am unfortunately aware of no texts about transgender characters for readers between five and twelve or so. However, there are a couple of picture books, which at least can be used with children up until the age of five or six, regardless of whether they are themselves trans or know any trans people.

My Princess Boy, which is by Cheryl Kilodavis and illustrated by Suzanne DeSimone, is about a boy who likes pink and enjoys wearing tiaras and other princess clothes. While there is no indication that this boy is transgender, in that he seems to identify as a boy, the book is positive in that the boy is accepted for who he is and how he likes to dress.

This is a strong message to pass on to children. It doesn’t matter if the princess boy is transgender or not, if he will grow up to identify as a transvestite, if he will be straight or gay or bisexual; for now, he is a little boy who likes pink sparkly dresses, and that’s completely fine with his relatives, classmates and teachers.

As Epstein notes, the princess boy is awesome as he is in this moment. It is not important if he grows up to be gay or transgendered or so on. This is message that needs to be hear more frequently . . . yes, here comes my “but.”

Books about Gay Characters for Kids

I think we need to add to the corpus of books for LGBT/Gender-Nonconforming kids with books that offer narratives for kids that identify as LGB too. Little girls read Cinderella and watch endless hours of princess stories and most parents don’t find them overly sexualized or problematic–of course many of us criticize those stories as anti-feminist, yet it is just about impossible to shield our kids from the complete domination that those stories have on the three to nine-year old entertainment market.

What if we began to write princess meets princess or prince meets prince overcomes hardship/evil witch/awful stepmother, and then finds romance and domestic bliss in a well-appointed castle, fairy tales? Would there be an outcry of this is “teaching kids to be gay”? What if these books were shelved between Peter Pan and Snow White in the library and any kid might read them?

That might result in tolerance and understanding before children even enrolled in kindergarten.

There are plenty of books about kids having gay parents and that is wonderful, but young readers are meant to identify with the children in those stories not the parents.

My tween needs books in which the hero/heroine is gay, but that isn’t the entire story. I’d like to note that the comic Runaways, Volume 8, “Dead End Kids” written by Joss Whedon fits the bill beautifully, but it is not suitable for younger readers.

One last note: anyone know a introduction to puberty and sexuality book for tweens that addresses LGBT issues? As my baby says in In Her Own Words:

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?

LGBT Families

Posted: February 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: In the world, The life of a parent | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

The definition of “LGBT families” needs to expand to include families with young lgbt/gender non-conforming children. Recognition and support is needed for these families on the front lines of a new wave of progress.

Where, oh, where are the queer children?

Posted: October 27, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: The life of a parent, The life of a queer kid | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Despite my searching and my attempts at visibility, I have yet to hear about other young LGB kids or talk to any other parents of gay kids.

I am sure there must be other kids from 5-10 years old who have come out to their families as gay.

I think it would be nice if these kids could find each other. I know there are communities and discussion forums for parents of transgendered kids and their children. The LGBT Youth Centers I have explored usually state 13 as their lower age limit.

Gay children have different needs than their adolescent counterparts – though the children will shortly grow into older kids. It seems that nurturing gay kids in childhood would make adolescence a little easier.

Why Queer Children Now?

There are reasons that children are coming out earlier than ever – greater visibility in the media, perhaps an increase in acceptance by the general population, and so on. This 2009 ABC News article: “‘Smear the Queer’: Gay Students Tell Their Stories” describes the experiences of students who knew they are gay in elementary school and then suffered from ruthless classmates and teachers who were at a loss about how to handle the situation.

San Francisco State University Clinical Researcher, Caitlyn Ryan’s research shows that:

In generations past . . . people came out of the closet at much older ages. However, with increasing awareness of homosexuality on TV, in high schools, on the Internet and in the news, . . . children today are more likely to put two and two together much earlier.

“Many people knew that they were gay at early ages, typically boys — they knew when they were 5, or 8 or 10,” [Ryan] said.

This early awareness, in combination with immature children, can lead to serious problems in schools without proper intervention.

There should be a broader discussion happening about the needs of young gay children. Research and articles in the press address LGBT bullying as a middle school or high school phenomenon, but from the article linked to above and other such collections of stories, children are being singled out for being gay in elementary school.

And lots of people know they are gay in elementary school or earlier.

The delightful blog Born This Way posts pictures readers have submitted of themselves as children along with a short blurb about themselves and the photo. The point of the blog is to show through photographic evidence and 20/20 hindsight that the readers were born that way. Many of the entries are accompanied by statements such as “when didn’t I know?” or “I was five when I had my first crush . . .”

It seems that there is proof that there were gay children, but

where, oh, where are the queer children and their families now?

Please feel free to email me: raisingqueerkids@gmail.com.

Embrace against Hate

Posted: October 26, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: The life of a parent, The life of a queer kid | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hugs. Lots of them.

It is clear to me now that holding my daughter is the most important gift I can give her during this period of intense growth. Since she chose to come out to the world she has grown up so much, but she also wants her mama to embrace her more than ever.

Last night during a long period of silent embrace she whispered, “it’s good to know someone’s here for me, whether it’s grades, sexual orientation, or sexual [gender] identity.”

These days I wonder all the time what we can do to inoculate our kids against the insidious onslaught of a bigoted society? Perhaps holding them as much as they need to be held, every time they ask for it is a start.

Kids are Kids – Romance of the Dolls

Posted: October 16, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: The life of a queer kid | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Recently my daughter used all her birthday money to buy more Monster High Dolls.

She couldn’t wait to get home and liberate them from their packaging. After about 30 minutes of silence she yelled from her room:

“Mom, come see how I posed the dolls! Come quick!”

All posed up and nowhere to go.

Lagoona Blue & Draculaura

She described what each doll was up to given her pose.

Clawdeen Wolf on the left is running off to meet a friend and Frankie Stein beside her is calling out to someone. I think Ghoulia Yelps with the blue hair is off to the mall to do some shopping. Cleo de Nile may be waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up to go to Gloom Beach – but Lagoona Blue kissing Draculaura is pretty self-explanatory and clearly the centerpiece of the display.

Whether it’s Ken and Barbie, Ken and G.I. Joe, or Lagoona Blue and Draculaura, kids are kids and their dolls will continue to romance one another.

The Sleepover Dilemma

Posted: October 9, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: children, kids, LGBT | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

The sleepover dilemma has kept us up more than one night. Do we let our daughter have/go to sleepovers with her female friends, particularly the girl she has a crush on?

Here Dan Savage addresses this very question. (It’s after the discussion of Michele Bachmann’s husband)

The open-minded father of a 14-year-old lesbian wonders if he should allow her to have sleepovers with her girlfriend.

Episode 249

 

What to Wear to the Wedding

Posted: October 8, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: children, Coming out, kids, lesbian, LGBT | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Last night my daughter’s 8-year-old friend “P” came to our house to play with my daughter and her new dolls. Afterwards P’s mom decided she would ask P if she had any questions about her friend being a lesbian. My daughter is 10 and recently came out to everyone, including all her friends.

The mom texted me the following conversation afterwards:

Mom: P, do you have any questions about your friend being a lesbian?

P: Yes.

Mom: Okay, ask me anything.

P: When lesbians get married can both of them wear gowns or does one of them HAVE to wear a tux?

* Mom answers question*

Mom: Any other questions?

P: Nope.

Mom: So you’re comfortable with everything?

P: Yep.

P was happy to hear that both brides can wear wedding dresses if they want. The mom wrote to me with pride, “that’s my girl!”

Perhaps someday what to wear to the wedding will be everyone’s biggest issue with the LGBT community.

One. person. at. a. time.

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