Special Education

Child’s Sexual Orientation

How Does Your Child Act? First of all I think that in the back of every parents mind are questions concerning their child’s future. Like will it be a doctor, a lawyer, or the next president of the United States. But with these questions there are also more questions that are not discussed freely like what if it is a bad child or it is uncontrollable? And will it do drugs or try alcohol and smoke cigarettes? Another question that might be in the back of a parents mind is about its child’s sexual orientation. I know this may seem far fetched to some people but if I had a child right now in today's

world, that question would not be in the back of my mind but in the front. I know that any parent and including me will love their child no matter what it’s sexual orientation, but I know that most if not all parents would prefer that their kids be straight. This is not so they won’t be embarrass or ashamed by their child, but only for the protection of their child. As we all know this world is not a safe place for people that are different. I think that parents are concerned when their girl acts like a tomboy, but they get really scared when their son starts doing what we traditionally consider girl stuff. A child should be raised to be whomever he or she chooses and the child shouldn’t have to accept society, but society should accept the child for who they are. A parents reaction to their daughter acting like a tomboy is very passive and they play it off humorously and sometimes they even encourage it. This doesn’t apply to some parents but most parents react this way when their daughter acts like a boy and does boy stuff. I used to know a girl that was a tomboy. She always hung around with boys even in middle school. She had al guy friends and would play boys games. Not once did I ever hear her parents say anything to make her stop acting like a tomboy, instead they encouraged. For instance they used to take all her friends, we were all boys to baseball games and hockey games. There was never another girl there except for herself. And I guess she felt comfortable hanging around with boys and her parents didn’t mind as long as she was happy, because that was really what mattered. On the other hand there was my neighbors son. This boy was the total opposite of the girl. He never played with boys but he was always around girls. He was always teased by the other boys including me, but we were all young back then. But looking back at this, it’s weird to notice that we always made fun of the boy who acted like a girl but never did I hear anyone make fun of the girl. I think that the boys parents were more upset about the little boys playmates than anyone else. The boys father, my neighbor used to push the boy into doing boy stuff like playing little league baseball and pop warner football. Whenever the father saw us boys playing football or basketball on the street, he would literally drag the boy out of the house to make him play with us. The little boy would be in tears crying but you could still hear his father encouraging him to play. We all knew that the boy was scared straight by his father and dared not to disobey his father, but he didn’t want to play. Even the boys mother was like his father. If other girls came to play with the boy, she would not let him out. So then a couple of boys used to go and get him out of his house, which his mom agreed to so he could secretly play with the other girls. Looking back at this makes me think that those actions by both the girl and the boy didn’t really mean anything because we were only nine or ten years old. There are a lot of reasons to why there is a double standard for girls acting like boys and boys acting like girls. The boys get the hard rough end of the stick. Everyone is okay with girls acting like tomboys but as soon as a boy acts like a girl, he is considered to be gay, or it is considered unexceptable behavior. I am one of those people. I don’t know what it is but as soon as I do see a guy who acts like a girl, I think that he is gay and I know most people feel the same. I think that this is societies fault. I say this because as kids everyone is taught to be athletic and play boy things like football, baseball, and basketball. And it doesn’t matter if girls play these sports because society accept it, there are women’s basketball leagues and soccer leagues. But nothing is ever considered a girl sport. The saying, “It’s a mans world”, has a lot of meaning behind it. I say this because men are considered