The otherwise-excellent April 12 Metro article on some Montgomery County parents objecting to their children encountering books with LGBTQ+ characters in school, “Schools get pushback on LGBTQ book list,” left out the perspective of parents who strongly support the policy. So let me provide it.
Thank goodness, and it is about time. As the mother of a 19-year-old transgender daughter and three other children, I am beyond grateful that LGBTQ kids now will be able to see themselves in the books that they read.
It is a simple reality that many of our children and many of the parents, caretakers and grandparents in Montgomery County are LGBTQ+. (Spoiler alert: This is true everywhere on the planet.) To treat this as highly sensitive information that should be doled out carefully and only with special permission is absurd. Even worse, though, it is deeply stigmatizing. It sends a message to our LGBTQ+ children that their very existence is so controversial that it can’t be acknowledged even in a charming children’s book.
Luckily, the integration of books with LGBTQ+ characters into the curriculum this year appeared to be a nonevent for our youngest child, a fifth-grader at Westbrook Elementary School, and her friends. She never would have mentioned to us that her teacher had read some books with LGBTQ characters if I hadn’t asked about it over dinner. This is exactly as it should be.
Some people in this world are LGBTQ+ and some aren’t. There is no opting in or opting out of that reality.
