Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Your response to those who believe that early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families. Currently at my center we have two children and they have two mommies. I recently sat down with the leadership team because I felt that we needed to do more to make this family feel included. I received there full support and began researching books to add to my classroom. One of the parents in my classroom overheard me talking my co teacher about and that night I had an email from her. She told me that she thought it was great that these two women had adopted those "poor" boys, but she did not want me to read anything to her child about families with gay parents. I think that I read the email 3 times because I was totally shocked. I wasn't expecting this and didn't know how to handle it. The next day I spoke with the leadership team again and they sent out a school wide email that said that the school acknowledges all families and that we want them to feel included in our school. Shortly after the gmail went out the family that complained gave notice and left the school. If you have ever used or heard homophobic terms such as "fag," "gay," "homo," "sissy," "tom boy," or "lesbo" as an insult by a child toward another child? Or, by an adult toward a child? Describe what occurred. How might these types of comments influence all child? I am guilty of telling a child to "man up" which basically means to stop acting like a female and to start acting like a man. When I said it, I didn't think about what as coming out of my mouth. I thought about it after the fact and realized how wrong it was. I have caught my niece saying things like "fag" and "sissy". When I asked her where she heard those words her answer was at school. I asked her what other words she had heard and I was shocked to hear "bitch", "slut" and other offensive words. We had a long talk about what these words mean and how offensive they can be to others. We are both working on being more cognizant about the things that we say.