Homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world of young
children through the focus of traditional families. Many of the books center on
the families with mother, father and children. There are illustrations that
include extended and blended families and maybe interracial families but none
that depict families with two fathers or two mothers. In fact
the most common way I have read about single parent household in children books are one
of the parent are shown as deceased as opposed to them indicating that the
parents were not ever married. Honestly I have yet to see children book that
displayed families with gay or lesbian families. The early childhood
communities in the area I live in still places a high focus on things like boys
not playing the girl dolls and little girl’s not rough housing as little
boys. In spite of the communities
growing number of gay and lesbian families most of schools and early childhood
center avoid responding to this family type in the area I live in. .
My response to a parent of family member who believes that early childhood centers should
avoid the inclusion books depicting gay or lesbian individuals same sex
partnered families is that it is unfair to children in the environment to never
see or her a representation of their families in the environment. If the focus
is to provide the best for children the best we can do for them is accept them.
Meaning our personal opinion of their family setup is not in their best
interest. We have to consider that the families
makeup be it a traditional, two fathers or two mothers are the choices of the
parents and not that of the child and we cannot penalize the child for their parent’s
decision. We that said it is important to make children of gay or lesbian
parents included as that of students whose family represents the traditional family.
