Making a different world
I remember with crystal clarity the day I learned the word lesbian. A girl in my 3rd grade class called me a lesbian, elliciting a chorus of scandalized oohs from my classmates. I asked my mom what it meant, and she told me that meant something terrible and disgusting and I was never to repeat it. When I pressed her, she grudgingly told me that it meant when two women said they loved each other and had sex, and that it was a terrible sin.
I taught Rhiannon the word lesbian today. We were watching a video made by a girl about her age asking voters to vote yes on Referendum 74 so that her moms could get married. Rhiannon was a little confused by the flurry of terms being used around the marriage equality debate, and so we talked about what things like "same sex", "gay", and "lesbian" meant. Her response was a matter of fact, "Oh, so lesbian means like Aunt Kaity and Miss Mikkayla, right? I didn't know there was a special word for a girl loving a girl". She then asked if I was voting yes "for my baby sister". I told her I was voting yes for my baby sister, for all the people that I know and love who are gay and lesbian, and for all the people and families that I don't know, for all the kids who just want their moms or dads to be able to get married. "Good! The old law was really stupid for their families." Her world is so very different than mine was.
I taught Rhiannon the word lesbian today. We were watching a video made by a girl about her age asking voters to vote yes on Referendum 74 so that her moms could get married. Rhiannon was a little confused by the flurry of terms being used around the marriage equality debate, and so we talked about what things like "same sex", "gay", and "lesbian" meant. Her response was a matter of fact, "Oh, so lesbian means like Aunt Kaity and Miss Mikkayla, right? I didn't know there was a special word for a girl loving a girl". She then asked if I was voting yes "for my baby sister". I told her I was voting yes for my baby sister, for all the people that I know and love who are gay and lesbian, and for all the people and families that I don't know, for all the kids who just want their moms or dads to be able to get married. "Good! The old law was really stupid for their families." Her world is so very different than mine was.