Talk About It Tuesday - Representation

Sesame Street just introduced the first gay couple to the show this week.  I, for one, applaud them for showing more types of families.  The world is not made up of heterosexual couples only, raising their perfect 2.5 children.  There are single parents.  Kids being brought up by other family members.  Adoptions.  Mixed race couples.  Gay and Lesbian couples.  And it's good to see all of those types of families represented on children's shows, especially ones with as long and storied a history as Sesame Street.

Sadly, there are many people out there that are up in arms that a children's television show is "shoving this agenda down kids throats".  They are complaining that kids don't care about that and that it's just the liberals trying to push their sick ideas on everyone else.  They seem to think that because it doesn't follow their idea of  "Christian" values that shows like this are just pandering to the "woke" crowd.  They refuse to see that showing families of different make-ups is giving a group of kids something they don't get often enough - a chance to see themselves, and their families, represented to the world at large.

These people are right that kids don't care about gay parents - because they only learn to hate it and think it's wrong when they are being told that it is by their own parents or the society around them.  What they see is two parents that love their kids.  It's not made a big deal.  It's just there, and it's a jumping off place for kids to ask questions and be told the truth about circumstances that are different than their own.  Most of the kids that I have known in my life accept a whole lot more than the grown-ups around them do.  They see a kid with two dads, or a kid with no dad, or a little boy that likes to wear dresses and play with dolls, and just accept them as they are.  It's only as they get older, hearing the adults in their lives say that these things are wrong do they start to believe it themselves.  They start to bully others for being different, because it's what they've learned from either the adults around them, or their peers that learned it from the adults around THEM.

Honestly, I don't care if someone doesn't agree with books or television shows showing different family make-ups, different genders, different sexualities as acceptable.  They have their opinions and they are entitled to it.  But what I do have a problem with are those that try to keep other kids from learning that these people exist and deserve to be treated with respect.  Those that try to keep books about body positivity, about the existence of LGBTQ+ individuals and families and about the neuro-diverse from reaching the hands of children in elementary school are doing every child a disservice.  It keeps the children who come from these families, who are different than the "norm", from seeing themselves represented in the world around them.  And it keeps the kids that have more traditional families, who are more "typical" from seeing that the world around them is far bigger and far more different than they first know.  How can that be anything but good?