Rainbow Relatives by Sudi "Rick" Karatas

Author:Sudi "Rick" Karatas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510731745
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Guide for Teachers and LGBTQ Parents

The Family Equality Council has a booklet called Opening Doors, which is an excellent guide for teachers and LGBTQ parents. It discusses many of the fears everyone has:

Children may fear that their families will be called names and not be included in certain school activities, friends might not be allowed over for sleepovers, and teachers and kids may assume they are LGBTQ.

LGBTQ parents may fear that their child may be discriminated against or not invited over to other families’ houses, that the school may out them and they will risk losing their jobs, that their family won’t be reflected in the curriculum.

Teachers or schools may fear that they will have to talk about sex in the classroom, and that if they are inclusive, they could be accused of promoting homosexuality.

The larger school community may fear that their children will be influenced to be gay and the traditional family will be devalued.

The booklet also discusses how silence can be just as powerful as the spoken word, if not more so. When children do not feel welcome to talk about their families at school, they are forced to leave a significant part of their lives behind when they enter a school or childcare setting. This can also have a negative impact on their self-esteem. When children do not feel comfortable in a school environment, their learning and development can be negatively affected as well.

Also interesting is what their findings reveal about children with one or more LGBTQ parents. Most of these children do not view their families as different or deficient. For these children, like all children, their families are just their families. However, children encounter negative messages about LGBTQ people in the world outside of their homes, and as a result are made painfully aware of the differences and the possible physical, social, and emotional dangers of disclosing that they have one or more LGBTQ parents. Because they are sensitive to—and fearful of—the repercussions, children may choose to never talk about their families within the school community. The booklet stresses that adults need to respect these feelings, providing advice to parents and teachers with regard to schools, including encouraging schools to have teachers use inclusive language for all families, especially theirs, especially in awkward situations like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, and to find a way to contribute to your school’s community, like PTA meetings and classroom trips. Educators must make sure all students feel safe at school, stop harassment and bullying comments, and let them know that certain hurtful words will not be tolerated.

Not only is it important that children know about their LGBTQ relatives, but all students must learn to be supportive of LGBTQ students and students with LGBTQ family members. The more kids who know people who are LGBTQ or know kids whose relatives are LGBTQ, the less kids will participate in the name-calling and bullying of LGBTQ classmates and LGBTQ people, and the less kids will be willing to tolerate those who do.

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