Myth

Kids are weirded out / confused when they see gay or trans people.

Reality

It’s almost always the parents that are. Children are typically nonchalant upon learning / seeing that someone is gay or trans—unless they’ve been told before that there’s something wrong with it.

When kids see two men holding hands or two women kissing, they don’t automatically think it’s strange. They’re simply observing the world around them, as they do with everything else. It’s only when adults react negatively that a child might reach the conclusion that what they’re seeing is not acceptable. They might then grow up to perpetuate that attitude.

As a child, you learn by observing the world and the people around you. You aren’t born with any inherent sense of right or wrong, good or bad. No child is born with the sense that same-sex intimacy is somehow worse than opposite-sex intimacy.

And for parents concerned that your child might develop a skewed sense of what’s “normal,” it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on where your own beliefs come from. Often, it’s the direct result of the attitudes of the community we grew up in, rather than your own critical thinking.