“Hey there! I have a question for your site, but I dunno – I don’t want to offend anyone. My son was watching Real Housewives of Atlanta with me and wanted to know why the guy was wearing high heels and makeup. How do you explain something like that? As well as the homosexual thing. I was so stuck when he asked!”
This can be a tricky discussion, depending on the level of intuitiveness that your child has. I will do my best to keep the explanation on a broad spectrum, in an attempt to cover (without actually discussing) various reasons why a man would be wearing heels.- Kimi
Please keep in mind, homosexuality and cross dressing do not have to correlate. A man can identify as heterosexual, but still enjoy wearing women’s clothes in various levels. We’ll touch on that later.
First, when we are teaching children about cultural and identity differences, we must be careful not to include any biases we may have as adults. Children are not born with prejudice for or against any group of individuals, those behaviors are taught or learned.
I consulted with our resident LGBT writer, Charlie for better insight. Her verbiage is awesome…
It is important to let kids know that people wear all kinds of clothing, so not bringing up specific words like homosexual, trans etc. will help negate much deeper and possibly confusing conversation for the child.
If talking about sexuality its important, feel free to point out that it is just the same as they like whoever he/she may like or crush on (if they are at that stage). Everyone has a preference, and the individual in question happens to like someone of the same gender.
Keeping a general base such as that helps the child to have a reference point when asking questions that start with Why. Understand that talking about these topics will prepare him as he gets older. He’ll understand or accept people more readily if he knows that it’s okay to be different.
For more references, please visit the links I’ve chosen below. They are not affiliated with VForVadge.com, but they provided me with great insight and facts:
Go Ask Alice! (Columbia University)
Cover Photo via – Leland Bobbe