"Just so you know Alex... Kyle is gay.... so be careful of what you say..."
Now, I was 12 or 13 when I first met Kyle and this was when the term "Thats so gay" was spilling out of everyones mouth as if it was the term "like".
As a child, LBGT was not normalized for me... it wasn't even discussed (may I add). It wasn't until i was in middle school did I hear the word gay. When I was in high school and I worked at an after school program, kids all of ages were throwing the word around without respect for its history. Safe Spaces introduced me to the idea of teaching young children that every family is different... that a simple book like the penguin story or the family story... can be one step for acceptance and tolerance for LBGT.
Safe Spaces also introduced the example of Post Cards For Buster. (Arthur was & still is, my favorite kid's show, so I commend Mr.Brown for his efforts). This example reminded me of SCWAMMP. The system has to work so hard that it can't run one episode that just so happens to include a family with two mom's?
It seems a little ridiculous to me that in 2015, after the past few years with the marriage laws, that an episode has to be taken off air. But reflect for a second: What TV show do you know that has a family structure different than Male and Female?
Your connection to yourself was great. I was on the opposite end. My mom played softball for many years in a league where there are many lesbians so I grew up around them and many of them are very good friends. It does make a difference to start teaching children at a young age they are still people and it is common.
ReplyDeleteI really like the personal connection you made. I especially liked that you put the video of Buster. When reading the article I thought it was a whole new show.
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