JayBird

Let me tell you a story. When I was a toddler, in elementary school, I wasn’t exposed at all to the LGBTQ+ community. I didn’t even know it existed. My mother was dating a woman at the time, and she hid it from me. I grew up with no exposure to the LGBTQ+ community. When I was in 5th grade, my cousin married his partner, they’re a gay couple. As a result of my lack of exposure to the community, I honestly thought it was really odd at the time. I didn’t agree with it, I looked at them like they were different. Over time, and with more exposure to the community, I’ve come to accept all, and nowadays I’m pansexual and transfem as well. The point of this story however, is to say that not everyone turns out accepting. A lack of exposure in the early years of a child’s life could very much just breed blatant homophobia and transphobia. That’s the harm in the bills being passed all across America. Without exposure to the LGBTQ+ community, all children will grow up thinking like I did. Thinking that the LGBTQ+ community is just a group of weird folks who are different. Disapproving of the lifestyle just for being different from what they know. That sort of conditioning lasts a lifetime, I know, I still feel it in the back of my head sometimes. Education is important, it teaches children how to take on the world, if we don’t show them every aspect of their communities, they’ll grow up closed minded. Thanks for reading.