There has been so much misinformation and fear-mongering being spread around when it comes to what our kids are learning when it comes to tolerance and acceptance towards members of the LGBTQ+ community.
I know and love people who are members of that community and firmly believe that if you don’t believe in human rights for everyone, than you don’t believe in human rights for anyone.
So let’s lay it all out on the table, shall we?
- Being transgender, lesbian, gay or any other member of the LGBTQ+ community is NOT A CHOICE. It is just who you are. No one wakes up one morning and decides “ hey, I think I’d like to try being transgender today, and become part of a much maligned and discriminated against group. “ This is not opinion, it is fact. Hard science based fact.
- No one is “coming for your children” with their LGBTQ+ agenda. No one wants to turn your kid gay, okay? And even if they did, it’s not gonna happen unless your kid was already gay/lesbian/trans/gender-queer already. See point above.
- Teaching tolerance is not the same as indoctrination. It’s not as if schools are rounding up kids, sending them to isolated cult-like communes and turning them gay. They are simply teaching that people love who they love, and the parts that you were born with on the outside don’t always match who you are on the inside. Kids can understand this, so why can’t grown-ups?
- Children who are not supported in their gender-identity and allowed to be who they are are several times more at risk for suicide. Hmmm, I wonder why that could be? How would you like it if one day you woke up and all of a sudden heterosexuality was no longer the “accepted norm” and you constantly had to defend and explain the choices surrounding who you loved and why. And no, education in schools is NOT part of some global conspiracy to “turn” everyone gay. Think about how stupid that sounds for a second.
- Would you say the kind if things about people with disabilities or people of colour that you say about the LGBTQ+ community? Should they not teach about other cultures and religions or places just because it’s not what you and your family are? Are we trying to turn people disabled or mentally ill by teaching about inclusion? Then how is this different?
- Teaching sex ed in schools in nothing new, and no, “they” are not teaching nine-year-olds how to use condoms in school. How do I know this? I have a nine-year-old currently in school and they have done no such thing. Teaching anything other than abstinence education (which by the way doesn’t work and makes things worse) is not being done to appease the LGBTQ+ community. It is being done so your kids don’t get pregnant accidentally, so they don’t get STD’s and spread them to others, and so they know there are options.
- Love is love.
This piece originally appeared on One Crazy Kid. It has been reprinted with permission.
