How do I explain gay people to my kids?

[Playinghardball]

[marble falls]

1. Yeppers!

[Capt. Obvious]

2. Same goes for Tooth Fairy and God

[PeaceNikki]

3. I like Louis CK

[Capt. Obvious]

4. Love Louis

[underpants]

5. Classic

thanks for that

[MannyGoldstein]

6. I remember when our son figured out about gay people...

He was in preschool, and several of his colleagues had two mommies. I figured I should talk it through with him to make sure he didn't get a big surprise in public - he didn't do well with surprises.

So one day, in the car, I got up my nerve and said "Um, do you know that XXX has two mommies instead of a mommy and a daddy?"

"Yeah" (looks confused by question)

"That's OK?"

"Yeah" (looks utterly confused by question)

It struck me at that moment that since he was growing up with gay relationships being out in the open, it was totally normal for him. There was zero reason for there to be any problem. When I was growing up, even in liberal New York City, that would have been a shocker. "Normal" is what we grow up with; there was actually nothing for him to figure out: it just was.

At that moment I felt so lucky to be raising our son in our wonderful Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He's growing up knowing that social injustice is the enemy, not people who look or love differently.

[planetc]

7. When I was a kid, gay people weren't normal.

Then, eventually, I came to realize that some people were called "homosexual", but I still didn't know what that meant. And I thought that since it wasn't talked about, there must be something abnormal about it. Then I finally learned what a lot was "normal" for some people. And I learned, from the Catholic Church, that actions you didn't have any control over could not be sinful. Then I realized that I knew some people who were gay, and I liked them, and they seemed perfectly normal to me, except that they lived with other women, instead of men. So, with the help of the Catholic Church, I realized that some people fall in love with people of the opposite sex, and some with people of the same sex. And by then I knew that you have NO control over who you fall in love with. And that people do much better if they can express their love instead of hiding it.

So, if I had a child asking me to explain it to them, I would say: "You know how Daddy and I got married because we fell in love? Well, some ladies fall in love with other ladies, and some men fall in love with other men. And then they get married. Any questions?"

[MoonchildCA]

10. That is almost exactly the conversation I had with my daughter when she was 5 or 6.

"What does "gay" mean?"
Well, you know how girls and boys fall in love and get married?"
"Yes."
"Well, there are some girls who fall in love with girls and some boys who fall in love with boys."
"Oh. What's for dinner?"

That was about 18 years ago...

[Curmudgeoness]

8. This is how Peter Paul and Mary did it.

Home is Where the Heart Lives

[felix_numinous]

9. I think it's equally important to explain intolerance

-that sadly there are people who are mean and controlling. Bullying is a related issue, IMHO.

[csziggy]

11. Before they were called "gay" my parents never had to explain

My father's aunt had a "special friend". They had spent much of their time together and traveled together since the 1930's. Bother were professional women and neither ever married.

Even as a young child I knew their relationship was more than just friends. The two women were just too close to not be more, though even up into the 1960s when my aunt's friend died, people just called them friends, or "special friends".

My great aunt was never the same after her friend died - she no longer had the joy in life and happiness she had with her friend. It was clear that she had lost the love of her life.

Growing up with those two women in my life makes it hard for me to understand why same sex couples should be prohibited from celebrating their relationships the same way differing sex couples do. Their relationship never threatened anyone and their enjoyment of each other added joy to our lives.

I miss both of them to this day - they were a more affirmative part of my life than most other adults when I was little.