Don't Say Gay?

[CJD]

(03-30-2022, 02:14 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I agree with your concerns, but I also addressed them in my original post.  I worked in a group home for years.  Kids would ask me questions about this topic, as well as religious and other sensitive questions, all the time.  I would always tell them that it wasn't an appropriate question for me to answer.  It's not hard to do, teachers can figure it out.  

I think the entire point people on the left are trying to make is that sexual orientation should not be a sensitive topic that only parents have a say in. In the past, when sexual orientation was heavily stigmatized, people would know they're gay but hide it from their parents, their friends, their colleagues and, on occasion, this repression has led to suicide and other toxic outward behaviors. Often times in religious and conservative households where children are taught from a young age that being gay is a sin and they will go to hell if they are gay.

The goal should be to destigmatize sexual orientation to the point where a child should not have to worry about being disowned by their parents for being gay (in the past) or, in more modern times, for being trans. There's a reason no one ever has to come out as straight. It's the running assumption until a person says otherwise. Why not have a society where sexual orientation is not assumed in anyone, child or adult, and just allows them to explore that on their own?

A lot of people have worked very hard at destigmatizing being gay and I think the fact that it is largely a non-issue for the majority of people is a testament to that work paying off. And I think those same people view this bill as a re-stigmatization of being gay veiled as a "parental concerns" issue.

I'm not saying this bill will have a detrimental effect on society's views of gay people or the next generation's suicide rate or acceptance of self or any of that.

But I don't think it will help in any of those regards either.