Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

            Homophobia and heterosexism has become a new phenomenon in our society given the diverse   and acceptance of the differences in society identities of individuals. Bias related to sexual orientation, is  called homophobia,  which is indcative of  any attitude, action, or institutional practice that subordinates or stereotype people because of their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, or bisexual(Start Seeing Diversity, Laureate Education.Inc,2011),and homophobia is often used to keep people from moving outside their assigned gender roles.  There is much controversy   to accept legally those who want same sex marriages in some states.  It is therefore a topic of interest because children in our society and classrooms  come from homes with diverse forms of family make up. The media promotes the normal functioning of families with same sex orientation in programs like “Modern Families” on ABC as a way to diffuse homophobia in the society.  Children books such as “My two aunts” and “We Are Who We Are!” by Deb Bixler, are books intended to fight heterosexism by educating young children.  Bixler (2010) believes all children should be celebrated whether they are Gay, lesbian or straight and be validated for who they are and not vindicated upon.

Other movies such as the lifetime  “ The truth about Jane”, directed by Lee Rose,  shows a high-school girl's first sexual experience with another girl and, along with her first broken heart, she must deal with her mother's reaction to her revelation that she is a lesbian and with ostracism at school. This helps society to become more understanding and aware of the impact of anti- gay behavior to the young children.

         I have read  that some people  believe early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families.  My stance is that of a neutrality position. I have problems with   such inclusion because it only  gives a wakeup call to young people that there is a lifestyle  where a man and another man can love each other and  my concerrn is children  can internalized what they see and read about, consequently, some children may fantasize on these ideas. Early child hood is when we want children to know and accept  the ways of good behavior and become  citizens of tomorrow's society. On the other hand, knowing that some children do not have control over the kind of families they find themselves  born or adopted into (Harro,2004), we need to help them feel belong and accepted to build their socio emotional development.  In so doing, these innocent children would  not get harassed and made fun of by their peers for having two moms or two dads ( Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  Nevertheless, I do not condone for anyone to use micro- aggressions on children such as calling them “fags” or “gay” because that is demeaning and it is used most often to put down someone. The fact that some children pick these utterances and use them inadvertently,  there is no doubt in my mind  that books  which can help  children to  learn  friendly and kind  use of words and  refine  their  social approaches to each other is  absolutely a good idea in the early childhood centers.  Programs that ensure the inclusion of diversity, and combine the reflections of their  families , use commercial materials like puzzles and  utilize photographs of diverse families to use in making games and for  children to learn about differences  are  applaudable  resources ( Laureate Education,Inc,2011).

            The fact that individuals have their opinion about  gay or straightness in the society, if a parent or family member did not want anyone  who is homosexual to be caring for  or interacting with their child at school I would respect the parents’  view because the parents have the choice and values they want for their  child.  Some kids can want to emulate and teachers are supposed to be that mentoring factor as they interact with children. My ideas may  sound obsolete but  personally, I would honestly not want  a gay or Lesbian teacher as a role model  for my child because again I am not sure what ideas they would be passing on to my child.  Nonetheless, when children grow up like in the case of Tina (Laureate, Education, Inc, 2011), and they want to become a Lesbian after being married and had children, then that becomes a personal decision.

I really feel  this topic needs time and energy for  society to internalized and take either individual or collective actions. I feel very discomfortable swallowing down the idea or notion of same sex orientation and hopefully through constant exposure and talk about the realization of these different society identities the fears would one day  dissipate.

References

 Bixler, D. (2010). “My two aunts” retrieved from  

                           http://www.mytwoaunts.com/about_deb.html

Diversity, Development, and Learning:  "Start seeing Diversity" (2011). Gender, Gender

        Identity, and Sexual Orientation Laureate Education, Inc. Walden University Multimedia

       Program. Minneapolis, MN: Walden University Retrieved from  http://www.courseurl.com).

Harro, B. (2010). The cycle of socialization. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H. W.

         Hackman, M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice  

           (Figure 6.1 on p. 46, 2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I would love to see the society embrace diversity as some element of life that spice up our mundane day to day lifestyle. Diversity    brings exuberance and happiness, if only we can appreciate all the uniqueness and richness that children bring to us from their various backgrounds.  Their uniqueness should be used as their schemata   to help them succeed and not to hold it against them.  The more I think about culture and diversity, the more I have become tolerant of the differences I encounter each day.  I have developed a less judgmental attitude about others’ behavior or way of life; whether they wear   sagging pants, cover themselves with tattoos, eat snakes, or dogs, or carry their babies on their heads or backs feel just right with me.  Undeniably, I have gotten pass my cultural shocks and become more adaptable to working with anyone regardless of their cultural background. What is foremost is the relationship, love, and interactions that are harmonious; and valuing each one’s identity in a safe and welcoming environment. I hope anyone working with children would see them as typical and give them the support and voice to survive and be visible in a society that is plagued with inequities and injustices.

One goal I would like to set for early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is to nurture each child’s personal identity and a positive sense of self that would enable them to blossom, flourish, and become useful members of the society in future. I envisage for children to become self confident and be proud of who they are, their families, and their cultural backgrounds.

To all my classmates, I wish to thank you all for   sharing your life stories honestly with me. I got to know most of you and your personalities by reading your interesting blogs. One thing I feel good about is that we are all ambassadors who would   go out there and make a difference in our classrooms by respecting and valuing each child as an individual by putting into action an anti-bias education. We would implement what we have shared in our discussion groups about social bias, prejudices, and stereotyping and the understanding of the roles of families as a great resource for perceiving the various diverse backgrounds of our students. I wish you all a successful knowledge –filled journey as you progress   with your educational goals and career.