Kid asked if my son was gay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing to be done about it. Your kid is going to have to learn to navigate this.

By 5th grade everyone will lay claim to their gender and sexual identity. Buckle up.

We are not seeing this in my kid’s sixth grade class. I’m sure some kids talk about it, but it really isn’t the “thing” that news and social media says it is. Her class has about 350 kids.

No, not at our school either, but they probably think some kids are gay - and they are probably right about some and wrong about others. If not in 5th grade then soon.

[Anonymous]

Big topic of conversation in 4th grade here

The answers are yes, no or I’m not sure yet.

Why is this hard?

[Anonymous]

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

[Anonymous]

It's over OP. Asked and answered. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big topic of conversation in 4th grade here

The answers are yes, no or I’m not sure yet.

Why is this hard?

The perception of the number of gay people in the US has recently risen from 10% to 15%. The actual number is 1-2%. Our perception is totally off - and our children's perception is even more off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Teach the kid that gay means joyful. Mess with his little mind.

Please don’t do that. Kids should know what it means. When I was in second grade, a girl asked me if I like girls. Dumbfounded, of course I said uh, yes . They asked if I was straight and I said no, then her group of friends all laughed . This was in the 90s. I didn’t know what gay or straight meant

[Anonymous]

Kids are homophobic in grade school. As a former teacher , I can tell you that all the inclusion curriculum in the world hasn’t changed that.

Kids today aren’t any different from the kids of our time

[Anonymous]

Are you gay?
No are you?
No

End of story.

It’s not a bad thing.

Do you play football?
No do you?
No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big topic of conversation in 4th grade here

The answers are yes, no or I’m not sure yet.

Why is this hard?

The perception of the number of gay people in the US has recently risen from 10% to 15%. The actual number is 1-2%. Our perception is totally off - and our children's perception is even more off.

Your facts are way off, the number of people that identify as lgbt is over 7% and that doesn’t include the generation being discussed here. Gen Z has a 20% lgbt identification rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big topic of conversation in 4th grade here

The answers are yes, no or I’m not sure yet.

Why is this hard?

The perception of the number of gay people in the US has recently risen from 10% to 15%. The actual number is 1-2%. Our perception is totally off - and our children's perception is even more off.

Your facts are way off, the number of people that identify as lgbt is over 7% and that doesn’t include the generation being discussed here. Gen Z has a 20% lgbt identification rate.

As I said, perception is way off. It's hard to know, since there are different ways to measure and different ways to survey . An estimate is 3.8% (my earlier number was a little off) - much lower than Kinsey's famous 10%.

https://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/137057974/-institute-of-medicine-finds-lgbt-health-research-gaps-in-us

More recently, the perception is at 25% but the most recent number is 7% with 4.2% identifying as bisexual.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/259571/americans-greatly-overestimate-gay-population.aspx

https://news.gallup.com/poll/470708/lgbt-identification-steady.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello how you handle? My son said no but I still think it’s inappropriate to ever ask someone, much less kids in 3rd grade about their sexuality or identity. Talk to the teacher? Other parent? Do nothing?

My son knows what it means.

Unclutch the pearls.

[Anonymous]

^ Most recently, among Gen Z adults ages 18–25, 72% identified as straight, 15% as bisexual, 5% as gay or lesbian and 8% as “something else”.

IOW, gen Z is still around 5% gay or lesbian. No real change.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/us/gen-z-adults-lgbtq-identity-reaj/index.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing to be done about it. Your kid is going to have to learn to navigate this.

By 5th grade everyone will lay claim to their gender and sexual identity. Buckle up.

+1 it's just a popular topic op. I've known kids claim every identity by 6th and some just observe/listen and say I don't know. My area is very accepting though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Oh my! That's a very rude question".

Welcome to the 21st century. No longer rude.

LGBTQ+ is much more accepted now than it used to be and the goal is to remove any stigma with being in any of those demographics. So, stop considering it rude and just answer. If the kid asked your son and he denied and then the kid asked you, I would say "He said he wasn't. Why would you not believe him?"

It is a super rude question as it is asking about a very personal matter. The level of rudeness has nothing to do with whether anything is wrong with any answer. Obviously 3rd graders ask all sorts of rude/invasive questions, but the solution is to teach them not to or at least ignore it rather than deny its a rude/invasive question.

Signed, a gay woman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Oh my! That's a very rude question".

Welcome to the 21st century. No longer rude.

LGBTQ+ is much more accepted now than it used to be and the goal is to remove any stigma with being in any of those demographics. So, stop considering it rude and just answer. If the kid asked your son and he denied and then the kid asked you, I would say "He said he wasn't. Why would you not believe him?"

It’s not an appropriate question for an eight year old.

It's not an appropriate question for anyone. Mind your own business, folks, please.