The way I would respond to a parent/family member who informed me that they did not anyone who is perceived as a homosexual or transgender to be caring for, educating and/or interacting with their child is that I would say is that in our Pre-school we teach our students the imporatance of getting along with everybody and that the school does not discriminate based on race, gender or sexual orientation. In our society, the role of a typical American family has changed drastically. Some people are raised by single parents, other may be raised by either two mothers or two fathers and there are some who may be raised by one mother and one father (like I was). I think it is important to teach our youth that it is not right to prejudge people nor is it acceptable to treat someone different just because they are not the same race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.
I have never used any of these terms, but I have had heard of an incident once when the term tom boy was used. I had a friend named Sylvia who hated to wear dresses and always wore jeans (her family was so poor she only owned one pair of jeans). The girls teased her because she never dressed up as a girly-girl. The boys did not like her because she was always taller than them. I feel that this comment had hurt her in her adult life because she had unfortunately committed suicide when she was a freshman in college. I feel that these comments affect all children because they hear these terms and many of young children may not know what these terms mean, but they hear them either at school or on TV and feel that it is acceptable to repeat them. I feel that if other children question their sexuality they might be afraid to share their feelings in fear they may get teased next or even worse beaten up. I feel that this may also cause bullying which is a big issue that most schools are dealing with. There have been several suicide cases involving young people who were teased about their sexual preference that they felt if they were not around anymore they could not get hurt.
