Quote:
Originally Posted by Toy Soldier
One criticism I might offer, though. A young child simply encountering same sex relationships in the real world probably won't find it odd unless they've been told its odd. My daughter first met a friend of mine and his partner when she was 4; she knew they were together and it didn't register as unusual to her at all. Which is surely how it should be.
Now... By introducing the concept of Pride, you sort of cancel out that effect. By loudly announcing that it's normal, are you not by implication informing young people of the fact that there are people out there who think it ISN'T normal and trigger a whole host of questions? And the internal question; "Do I think it's normal or not?"
And I do think that's a question better suited to a mind capable of free thinking / analytical thought. Which means no under 11's. Because they literally can't do that, which is something people tend to forget or overlook.
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If they literally can't do that, then they won't ask it
I do think events such as this do help to educate though, in that they can quash the kind of "lol your gay" playground insults and taunting (perhaps I'm thinking too idealistically, though), which I would imagine is the primary motive for trying to organise an event such as this. I don't think they enhance the idea of "otherness" at all, and that's something that irritates me about adult members of the LGBT community who act all uppity and "above" pride events. The whole point is to celebrate your history and who fought for your rights - so people who just veer away and say it's "too gay for them" and "they don't want to make a scene" are just internalising the homophobia they've been subjected to on themselves.
I don't think a full queer history needs to be instilled on kids - especially not primary school children - but if this is just a one-off event in the same spirit of say, Red Nose Days or Children in Needs or War reenactments or "dress like a Victorian day" or whatever else happens at primary school, I think it's just a nice excuse for fun and also a perfectly innocent way of encouraging children to be less...judgmental I guess? But I see what you mean about that, in turn, perhaps making some kids go "hey **** this, this is lame" or whatever - but I think some kids just react this way to a lot of things
I think we're underestimating the topics that young children are exposed to: why is it okay for kids to learn about the grim realities of the world wars, or famine in Africa, or some fat king from 600 years ago beheading his exes for failing to bear children, but not something like this?
And if it's a case of trying to shelter them from grown-up topics of romance, sex and sexuality, then let's abolish all lessons about the royal weddings, the Nativity, Romeo and Juliet, sex education...