By Imogene Taveau, Year 12
It’s a controversial topic; what is the right age for children to be made aware of the LGBT+ community? Should they even be made aware at all? Truthfully there is no black and white answer.
From the moment they are born, children are raised with princes falling in love with princesses, “cute kindergarten crushes”, and mummies and daddies. Now there is no denying that these make up the vast majority of the population, however it is also true that LGBT+ people still exist, and always have. It is not some new modern trend, and there are lots of older members of the LGBT+ community, including many LGBT+ parents. While their children will understand, the children at school will not necessarily. Surely it’s important that they at least know of the existence of LGBT+ people? This doesn’t need to mean labelling and long talks about sexuality and all that, rather just having the concept of men with men or women with women and all that being part of a norm.
Getting these concepts into mainstream education, getting the whole idea of the LGBT+ community as not an idea but simply another part of life, remains a difficulty. That being said, there have been terrific advancements in areas of children’s entertainment in giving children access to these concepts. Children’s picture books are slowly emerging featuring two parents of the same sex, as well as some about the gender spectrum, such as the book I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings which follows the story of a young transgender girl. Even Disney is beginning to consider making an LGBT+ princess and talks of Elsa perhaps being the start of this change in the new Frozen film are frequent.
Is this all really necessary? Do children need to know about these concepts? Or is the modern-day world being too P.C.? What do you think?
Come along to S.A.G.A. club every Wednesday if you want to discuss more LGBT+ topics and help fundraise for various organisations. It is a safe space for people to be respectful and open for discussion.
