Don't Say Gay?

[*Nately120*]

Here is the true story of how I found out what gay was.  I was 8 or 9 or so and were in the car listening to the radio and Rocket Man by Elton John was on and when I heard the line "I miss the earth so much, I miss my wife" I asked who Elton John's wife is.  My mom simply replied that Elton John is a homosexual and I asked what that was and she said he's a man who is attracted to other men.

And that was that.  So when I was a kid "gay people" were Elton John and Freddie Mercury.  My parents got the idea across in a non-judgement manner, but the lack of normality in the openly gay community sure made being gay seem a lot more glamorous and over the top than it was.

(03-23-2022, 08:02 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: We have to stop inflicting ideology into children. Geez, let them grow up and live a happy childhood instead of confusing them with stuff they don't even care about. We are robbing their innocence?

Good idea in theory, but if you don't inflict ideology on your kids someone else will.  My parents kept things pretty sanitized, which just led to me hearing things from older kids and then having a real "Wow, where has this stuff been all my life!" moment.  I did manage to accumulate a bunch of good stories of trying out new words and phrases I heard "the cool kids" saying and finding out just how taboo some of them were.  Life is trial and error.