really worried about social acceptance...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gay mom here and we live in Eastern Silver spring. We love where we are and have had no issues. School has been super supportive. Mcps as a whole is very gay friendly.

Bunch of two mom families at the elementaries near Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody cares. This is MoCo and people are very educated and accepting of all kinds of diversity.

And yet there's a new racial incident at a W every other month.

Except school is out lady, since mid-June.

I know these ugly hate incidents at the W's only happens between September and June! What were they thinking!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I was hoping to hear your thoughts on a concern I have, and I would really appreciate your full honesty!

My wife and I will be buying a home in the Potomac/Bethesda area later this year. We are an two-mom family, and have an 8-month old daughter who will be attending whatever local public school we are districted for (hs will be Walter Johnson, Whitman or Churchhill).

While the schools in that area are great, I've also read that the parents can be very snooty and cold, and are typically on the more conservative side.

How accepting do you think the other kids, parents, teachers will be? Have you come across many other LGBTQ+ families in the area? I'm mainly just worried about teasing and her feeling like an outcast.

Any insight you provide will be much appreciated. Thank you.

WJ would be fine for your kids. Several LGBTQ families - all of whom are welcome. Promise.

[Anonymous]

Another BCC boundary mom here. (Westland MS)

Straight, but my kids are gay and trans.

Lots of gay parents, queer kids, non-binary kids in our social group.

Nothing but love and support from the neighbors and the school system.

[Anonymous]

Bunch of same sex parents at out ES in Churchill district.

[Anonymous]

Whitman cluster family here. There are plenty of same-gender parents, with the majority being two moms rather than two dads. It's NBD. Our kind of cliquey but very effective and hardworking PTA has several leaders who are women married to women. Really it was a non-issue and only came up when arranging for playdates and one mom saying oh the other mom will pick up the child.

I'm sure there are conservative groups in some parts of Bethesda but it's not something we have come across and we have a relative who is a woman married to a woman so it would have gotten our attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I was hoping to hear your thoughts on a concern I have, and I would really appreciate your full honesty!

My wife and I will be buying a home in the Potomac/Bethesda area later this year. We are an two-mom family, and have an 8-month old daughter who will be attending whatever local public school we are districted for (hs will be Walter Johnson, Whitman or Churchhill).

While the schools in that area are great, I've also read that the parents can be very snooty and cold, and are typically on the more conservative side.

How accepting do you think the other kids, parents, teachers will be? Have you come across many other LGBTQ+ families in the area? I'm mainly just worried about teasing and her feeling like an outcast.

Any insight you provide will be much appreciated. Thank you.

Bethesda and Potomac are very accepting. If you've narrowed it down to these two places you've made a great choice As for what you read, it was likely written by an east county fear monger. There is an element in east county that actively tries to smear Bethesda and Potomac because they are trying to raise their property values. What you'll get in Bethesda and Potomac are highly educated traditional liberals who will treat you like regular people. East county is filled with wokes who will treat you like demi-gods because they never met a minority they didn't gush over to signal their piety.

Bizarre, go away.

While I agree it was an odd post.. our experience with DD's friend who is LGBTQ is that it's a non issue in Bethesda/Potomac but when our kids go to an activity in Takoma the families there make a big deal out of it and make it something that is more celebrated. The families of straight friends will ask said friend about pride events and go out of their way to tell them how supportive they are. There is a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My experience of that area is that they are conservative in some social ways, but not politically and not in a homophobic way. I wouldn't want to live there for other reasons, but I don't think you'd experience any discomfort because of being a two mom family.

+1 There are at least two two-mom families at my Bethesda ES.

+1 Same. You will be fine in the clusters that you mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I was hoping to hear your thoughts on a concern I have, and I would really appreciate your full honesty!

My wife and I will be buying a home in the Potomac/Bethesda area later this year. We are an two-mom family, and have an 8-month old daughter who will be attending whatever local public school we are districted for (hs will be Walter Johnson, Whitman or Churchhill).

While the schools in that area are great, I've also read that the parents can be very snooty and cold, and are typically on the more conservative side.

How accepting do you think the other kids, parents, teachers will be? Have you come across many other LGBTQ+ families in the area? I'm mainly just worried about teasing and her feeling like an outcast.

Any insight you provide will be much appreciated. Thank you.

WJ is extremely liberal.

I can think of 3 families off the top of my head that have either two moms or dads, and they are very much accepted in our community.

Im sure there are more that I don't know of or haven't met, and I cannot speak for Churchill, BCC or Whitman, but I know that at WJ it's very open minded... maybe because we aren't considered the "wealthiest" of those 4 schools, but it's a very down to earth, tight knit & accepting community, which I love. 🙂

[Anonymous]

We live in bethesda, and are zoned for Whitman. My kids know multiple families with two moms or two dads, and we are very close with one of them. I don’t know of any issues with social acceptance.

[Anonymous]

While I agree it was an odd post.. our experience with DD's friend who is LGBTQ is that it's a non issue in Bethesda/Potomac but when our kids go to an activity in Takoma the families there make a big deal out of it and make it something that is more celebrated. The families of straight friends will ask said friend about pride events and go out of their way to tell them how supportive they are. There is a difference.

You mean that your kid and their friend show up for a soccer match in Takoma or whatever, and people fall over themselves? I mean, that's a claim, but it's not at all in keeping with my experience parenting a LGBTQ+ kid in Takoma Park.

So, folks can take your word as a friend of a friend who sometimes comes to Takoma Park for activities, or mine as a resident of Takoma Park personally parenting a queer kid. People are accepting, but also pretty blase given that half of the AFB teens in Takoma Park identify as some flavor of LGBTQ+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody cares. This is MoCo and people are very educated and accepting of all kinds of diversity.

You're joking right?

There is plenty of discrimination and lack of acceptance of people who are poor, or disabled, or members of certain ethnic or racial groups in that part of MCPS. Just not against LGBT. The only reason someone would buy there is because they define "good" schools as majority white ones, and are willing to pay a premium for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in MoCo for 11 years (Kensington and Rockville) and fortunately have seen very little (actually no) explicit discrimination against LGBTQ families. However, you might want to ask a broader question about equity, if that is important to you. Some (not all, of course) of the liberal, progressive families accepting of LGBTQ families are much less accepting of low (or middle) income families, particularly from low SES or immigrant backgrounds. You might want to ask yourself if moving to Bethesda, rather than a more socio-economically diverse neighborhood or school district is the right fit for you. It might in fact be the right fit, and that is okay. My family has chosen to send our children to public schools in Silver Spring, despite having access to BCC, because we wanted our children to have peers with backgrounds that are more reflective of our society. Again, I don't suggest that this should be your primary concern because that is your family's decision but something to consider when you are pondering issues of social acceptance.

This is a good point.

Yup, as someone who grew up in Bethesda (and went to WJ), this is spot on. The lovely neighborhood in which I grew up is now McMansion central; if the people seem low-key, it’s because they’ve largely surrounded themselves with other wealthy people, so they relax about being in a “good” neighborhood. These same people recoil with horror when they hear where our kids go to school. I’m only exaggerating slightly.

Uh, what? lol

I just moved to the WJ district two years ago, and the reason we specifically chose it was because it still has all of the older homes throughout the neighborhoods... homes with personality & history. They're not cookie cutters.

I find this hard to believe... where exactly did you grow up that's in WJ that's "Mcmansion central" now?

I can't think of a single neighborhood zoned for WJ that doesn't have predominantly ranches, lunchboxes, split levels, farmhouses, cape cods & small colonials with newer construction sprinkled throughout.

Yes, EVERY neighborhood in Bethesda has new construction of larger homes being built, including WJ -- but the ones in WJ aren't what anyone would traditionally consider "Mcmansions", because the lots here aren't anywhere near as large as they are in wealthier districts like Whitman, Churchill or BCC.

Even though WJ has newer homes, they have all of the other types of older homes (mentioned above) still lining the streets heavily, situated right next door to the new construction.

So, where exactly did you grow up? 🤔

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody cares. This is MoCo and people are very educated and accepting of all kinds of diversity.

You're joking right?

There is plenty of discrimination and lack of acceptance of people who are poor, or disabled, or members of certain ethnic or racial groups in that part of MCPS. Just not against LGBT. The only reason someone would buy there is because they define "good" schools as majority white ones, and are willing to pay a premium for that.

+1,000 just don't be poor!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

While I agree it was an odd post.. our experience with DD's friend who is LGBTQ is that it's a non issue in Bethesda/Potomac but when our kids go to an activity in Takoma the families there make a big deal out of it and make it something that is more celebrated. The families of straight friends will ask said friend about pride events and go out of their way to tell them how supportive they are. There is a difference.

You mean that your kid and their friend show up for a soccer match in Takoma or whatever, and people fall over themselves? I mean, that's a claim, but it's not at all in keeping with my experience parenting a LGBTQ+ kid in Takoma Park.

So, folks can take your word as a friend of a friend who sometimes comes to Takoma Park for activities, or mine as a resident of Takoma Park personally parenting a queer kid. People are accepting, but also pretty blase given that half of the AFB teens in Takoma Park identify as some flavor of LGBTQ+.

PP here... I love you! 😁
If we ever move out of WJ, can we be BFF's if we move to Takoma Park?
It really sounds like a lovely place.