Kids must be our hope for the future with regard to LGBT rights!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

Talking to my daughter tonight, and she was discussing her friends, how funny and interesting they are, the hilarious stuff they talk about (yes, I am enjoying it now while she still tells me this stuff). She is almost 10 and in the fourth grade.

Then she tells me about her friend Timothy. "Oh my gosh, he's the BEST. He's so funny and smart and he sings really well and he's gay and we love to talk about clothes and music and--"

"Wait," I say, "gay?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know that?"

She sort of chuckled and rolled her eyes, "Momma, EVERYONE knows. Sheesh. It's no big deal. He just doesn't like girls! Well I mean he DOES, because *I'm* practically his best friend, but he doesn't LIKE-LIKE them."

"But how do you KNOW?" She laughed and said he told her one day.

So I asked her if he had ever been made fun of or anything and she said "no, why would he be?"

"By ANY other kids?" (Not ALL kids at her school are the children of very liberal parents, after all...)

"Nope, everyone loves him! Oh that reminds me, know what he did today? It cracked me up SO BAD..."

And she launched into a story about him in choir today.

Wow. I taught middle school up until last year and I was amazed at how completely accepting those kids were of their openly gay and lesbian peers, but somehow I just wasn't expecting that in elementary school.

It gives me hope, ya know?

[nyhuskyfan]

1. Reminds me of a song...

Children, Children
Future, Future
Children, Children
Future, Future
Children Are The Future
Kids!


Sorry -- serious subject, non-serious response

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

2. No it was cute

and very appropriate!

As time goes by, I am believing more and more that these children, who have not grown up with so much of the stigma or "in the closet-ness" of homosexuality as we did, will be the ones who make HUGE strides in LGBT rights.

[nyhuskyfan]

9. That came from a Simpsons episode...

I forget the plotline, but all the kids were asked to sing a ""Super Bowl Halftime" type song to greet a famous visitor to Springfield. It was spoofing those songs by reducing them down to two words -- and I couldn't stop laughing until the next commercial break was over. I always think of that song whenever someone says that children are the future.

[Misunderestimator]

3. Last week I was at a debate party. I didn't know the people hosting...

but turned out that they were a lesbian couple and they had a 9 year-old boy together. He was talking about how he couldn't talk about "it" at school... so his mom asked him "You mean about having two moms?" He said "No, that's no big deal, I mean about being a democrat."

Made my night!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

4. Tee hee.

Ok that made me actually chuckle out loud. I love these kids nowdays!

My daughter would concur with him, by the way, though she is quite "out" about being a little Democrat!

[Misunderestimator]

5. Unfortunately, this area in which I live (though will be moving from soon)

is HEAVILY republican. He said that there were only a couple of other kids that were democrats in his school. I absolutely fell in love with that kid.

[MrScorpio]

6. The problem is never the kids

It's always the adults who do their damndest to fill their impressionable heads with nonsense.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. Yeah but see that's the thing

it doesn't seem to be taking, for lack of a better word, or sticking in a lot of these kids' heads anymore.

Kind of like how my great-grandparents were more racist than my grandparents who were a little bit racist and then my parents were hardly racist at all and so they had nothing to teach me with regard to hate so now my daughter is in an even BETTER position to love and accept others.

Ya know?

[Misunderestimator]

10. VERY good point... Same thing in my family.

Though my brothers are another story. Back to GLBT, on 60 Minutes on Sunday, they had a segment on what they called the "Echo Babyboomer" generation. When asked how many of them in the focus group believed in gay marriage, they ALL raised their hands. ALL OF THEM. Amazing.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

11. I believe it

that's pretty much how kids around here are and I'm in Texas!!!

They just don't see what the damn big deal is with letting GLBT persons get married to each other.

A lot of adults I know don't see what the big deal is either, but almost ALL the kids I've ever talked to about this don't.

[NamVetsWeeLass]

8. out....

Try this on for size.. My brother used to tell his girlfriends this little gem... "Yeah my sister, she is a Nurse, Her name is Andrea and she is a Witch." they would of course tell him not to say that,it ws mean and he would say "No, she really is a Witch....."

[Maddy McCall]

12. It's not universal. Kids at my son's school are routinely called "faggot"

or "homo" or "gaywad." A little African-American boy who is very effeminate is regularly picked on and beaten up.

[JohnKleeb]

14. we dont have the racism like you guys too

but "faggot" is a common ephitet here.

[Maddy McCall]

16. I don't see racism at that age...I think major progress has been made...

on the issue of race. Sexuality, however....well that's another matter.

Kids don't pick on the child I mentioned in the previous post because he is black; they pick on him because he "acts gay."

My kid and his best friend defend the little boy, though, so at least SOME of the kids are saying that it's not cool to call him names.

[JohnKleeb]

18. Well I dont see so much white-black racism

but I see a little hostility towards Arab kids because of 9/11. Now the gay thing yeah I see that for sure, good for your son and his friend, really.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

23. GEez

that's horrible!!!!

[JohnKleeb]

13. Sigh I hope so

Your daughter really is a great person, I sadly say I wasn't that smart at that age, not anywheres near it. I've grown more tolerant of GLBT as I've aged I admit but I am ashamed of how I once was. I went out to eat to finish up my interview by my friend who is a reporter for a local newspaper and a staunch democrat, he told me how when he went to the young republicans yesterday that they were so different from the young democrats in many ways, like they called each other "Faggot" "queers", I told him hell that reminds me of how pre middle school, I said there's a way to be immature and let live yet while being mature at the same time. I still see when the GAAY(Generations Accepting All Youth), which is our version of a Gay-Straight Alliance, I see kids still sneer at that, I still see kids giggle when there's an article about a gay kid in the paper. Maybe your daughter's age is more tolerant than mine though. I am surprised her friend already knows yet who am I to say that because I knew I was attracted to girls early on, and dancing with that girl in fourth grade sealed it. Thanks again for giving me hope that my slightly younger peers are smarter than I was at the time.

[Maddy McCall]

15. My son is in fifth grade...he sees now much of what you saw then.

It hurts his heart...he defends kids that get picked on. I am proud of him.

[JohnKleeb]

17. I just hate how I was

Granted I wasn't like some people but I am ashamed of how I once was. I remember some people I know saying, "I would beat up a gay guy", right around the time I was growing fully tolerant, just outraged the fuck out of me, that they could be so damn insensitive. You got a good son, I wasn't that mature at that age I admit.

[Maddy McCall]

19. You can't blame yourself. You were a child.

I am a single parent; I talk to my child about subjects that are "adult." He has been exposed to a lot--because I discuss social and political issues with him, but in a manner that he can understand.

You can't beat yourself up--you didn't know any better until you had your awakening. :hug:

[JohnKleeb]

20. I know but its guilt

My parents really didn't discuss politics with me and when I did discuss politics, it was with my grandparents, and it was mostly economics we discussed. I know not to beat myself up but I was a bastard, and it's one of my regrets, at least I know better now though eh.

[Maddy McCall]

21. I was a little on the bully-ish side toward one girl in elementary school.

I called her names, so I know what you mean about guilt.

I saw her several years ago, and I apologized for all the things I had said to her when we were children. She was very forgiving. I felt better after that, and I have been able to let it go. But, to make up for the way I treated her, I have been firm with my son about NOT making fun of people and I have taught him to take up for kids who are bullied at school. I know I can't undo what I did as a kid, but I can do something to make sure that my kid doesn't treat people as I did.

[JohnKleeb]

22. Thats good

I plan to teach my kids if I have any to be tolerant and etc.

[Misunderestimator]

24. Guilt can be a productive thing.

But you shouldn't continue to beat yourself up about it. I'm quite a bit older than you, but I was one of those kids that was regularly taunted and teased and beaten up in school... and I would completely forgive those that did it if they were like you, and came around to the good side. You can regret it, but you can also understand that you learned from it and are a better person because of it.