And as far as public exposure goes, I agree that being overly affectionate in public, no matter the sexual orientation of the couple, is frowned upon. However, it is not frowned upon for a man and a woman to hold hands while it might be for a man and a man or a woman and a woman to hold hands. Honestly, I would rather not see anyone making out in public, but it seems more acceptable for a heterosexual couple to do so than a homosexual couple. There is nothing perverse about loving someone and being different from others. If we teach children that there is something wrong with that, then we are teaching them to conform to the norm. It contradicts what we have been telling them: Be your own person and be true to yourself.

Not sure what you are reading, but you seem to have confused some of his ideas.

Freud held that the unsuccessful resolution of the Oedipus complex could result in neurosis, paedophilia, and homosexuality.

The “and” in this sentence does not mean that unsuccessful resolution of an Oedipus complex will result in all three conditions, but that it can result in any or all of the conditions.

For example drinking alcohol can (amongst other things) result in feeling relaxed, reduced of coordination and dehydration.

All 3 are possible outcomes of drinking alcohol, not all 3 result all of the time, they are neither mutually exclusive or inclusive outcomes. However, would you instantly associate being relaxed with dehydration?

I think not.

I’m an openly bisexual woman and often am asked “When did you know you were bi?”

My answer is “When I was six.”

The inevitable next question is usually along these lines; “Oh my God! Were you abused?”

No, I was not. My parents were both straight, monogamous, typical Midwesterners. I was born this way, I don’t regret it, and I don’t believe I could do any influence to a child in terms of their sexuality aside from this:

I could make my child feel comfortable with their sexuality and encourage them to examine and question it freely, and accept themselves, no matter who they turn out to be.

Bingo! That’s what society is afraid of; the act of thinking. Big shock in a world of creationists.

I doubt it will change, any of it; humans just won’t wake up.

there is a human factor and children all know kindness.
But do they Know education? I am all for it.
You can’t teach what you do not know.

Consequently, I’m going to rip your post to shreds…

1) When it comes to raising children, we always need to hear more voices. The interchange of ideas is how society grows. Irrespective of how good your parenting skills are there is always room to improve. One way to do that is to listen to other voices.

I’ll also add, that this is a web page, you sought out my opinion, if you “don’t need another voice on how to raise your child” why did you read my post?

2) You go-on to completely miss the point of my post which is that if we are to avoid homophobia and inherent bigotry & prejudice towards LGBT couples then we need to normalise same-sex relationships (not sex) in the eyes of children.

This can be as simple and as innocent as saying, “some times men and women fall in love and get married, other times two men fall in love and get married too. Both are OK.”

Homosexuality is a perfectly normal thing. What I’m arguing for is that parents let their children grow up knowing that its OK to be Gay. Rather than keeping them in ignorance and letting them become aware of homosexuality after the first time the word “gay” is used a playground insult. Which naturally prejudices them against the term.

3) I think though what angers me most about your post though, is that you are implying I’m pressing my values on you and your children.

When clearly I am not, (remember you sought out my opinion,) but it is in fact you who are imposing your preference for heterosexuality on your children, by not giving it an equal footing with homosexuality.

The world does not revolve around you. The world does not revolve around me. Everything takes time, let it flow naturally.

The comment is 100% factually correct, check it for yourself, so I assume that you are referring to the original article.

Care to explain why I’m wrong?

To clarify some of your statements about perceived positive discrimination.

“Homosexual married couples get MASSIVE tax breaks”

FACT: In the UK, homosexual couples in a civil partnership get the same tax benefits as straight married couples.

Read more here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/married-allow.htm

men are practically required to hire any woman that comes in for an interview for fear of being sued and companies are smacked with quotas requiring them to hire X people from each race you can name.

FACT: Positive Discrimination is illegal in the UK quotas/selective systems are not permitted. An exception to this is a provision made under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which requires that the Police Service of Northern Ireland recruit equal numbers of Catholics and non-Catholics.

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action#Europe

If you feel you have been unfairly treated you should take your claim to an employment tribunal. Perceptions of positive discrimination in the UK are rife, most people are unaware that its against the law. However, I can’t recall of anyone WASPs suing for positive discrimination, either this means all WASPs are ignorant of the law or perception of positive discrimination has no basis in reality and there are no cases to bring.

You decide which.

My problem is this. I’ve been to a few GLBT parades, and though I agree that a bare breast is not a big deal these days (although a straight woman walking around topless here in North America gets her charged), having two topless women making out and sucking each others breasts is just public pornography, which we keep from our kids. Now, I agree with you, Mardi Gras, and Carnivale are the same way, but I wouldn’t take my 5 year old to those either.

This problem however stems from bigot behavior, by the way. If bigots didn’t make it so taboo to be non-hetero, then it is likely that other “taboos” such as public nudity would seem more reasonable to the victims. Look at children, you give them one unreasonable rule, and they will begin to break the reasonable ones as well.

I’m not saying GLBT Pride is a bad thing, personally I think it should just be Sexuality Pride, where everyone can get together and celebrate their sexuality. But I still would never take a small child to it.

And one quick aside, in GLBT Parades are an example of one of my biggest pet peeves. The modern “equality” movements, have started to go way to far. I am a straight, white, anglosaxon male, and with the laws that keep coming out, I’m screwed. Anyone who isn’t part of “the man” gets an extra advantage now. Around here, Homosexual married couples get MASSIVE tax breaks, (EDITOR’S NOTE: FACT CHECK!! See Below!!) men are practically required to hire any woman that comes in for an interview for fear of being sued, and companies are smacked with quotas requiring them to hire X people from each race you can name. I have been turned down for jobs in favor of hiring someone who knew nothing about the job, but filled a quota or two. The bigotry has to stop, from all sides, not just the WASPs.

It’s sad that in the 21st century people still have that attitude of well, I’d have lunch with a fag, but I would want them teaching my kids in school….

We’re always gonna be here. Get used to it!

bitheway has an interesting point about the so-called adult nature (or lack thereof) of this topic. The sad thing is people seem to regard anything that is the least bit different from themselves as deviant or weird. I found this discussion through StumbleUpon. The problem is “Bisexual Culture” is listed under the “Adult” category. In other words, being bisexual is only for adults. Sadly, “Gay Culture” and “Lesbian Culture” are also considered adult material. Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian SEXUAL material are certainly adult in nature, but to reduce the CULTURE of the LGBT community to sex is insulting! My Bisexuality is not the [same] as my choice of who I have sex with.

Think about it. Whilst girls as young as pre-school age pick up the idea of families with a mummy and a daddy as the norm, there is no basis for a child to attach disgust to something that doesn’t fit their world view. Lets face it most children would continue to pick their noses until adulthood unless an adult had told them it was “disgusting”.

Most young boys in contrast are hetero-phobic, preferring to have nothing to do with girls until puberty. I remember growing up in Yorkshire, my brother and I hung out with just one girl and the only reason we did was because she was a tomboy and consequently boyish enough to fit in with our shenanigans.

mind you, homosexuals have heard much worse, but the point is that i’ve heard children speaking like that about anything homosexual, whether it is brought up in a discussion or they have seen something on the television.

i think it is totally wrong to suggest that homosexuality be kept hidden from children.
if that was so,
one: children who are homosexual, believe they are or are becoming homosexual, will always be put down for it, no one will be out there to act as a role model for them, they will feel the need to hide themselves from society.
and two: that is not giving children a fair choice in life. they should be able to choose what gender they prefer just as much as they should be able to choose what religion they want to follow.

Fundamentally I think the problem here is people are confusing sex and sexuality. Pride marches celebrate sexual diversity, ie: sexuality – they do not celebrate sex.

In many ways this blog is the same, it discusses sexuality not sex – I do not consider the subject matter of this blog to be adult only content. In fact I think its very important that this kind of content is accessible to young teenagers. Ditto for Pride Marches.

As for younger children, well they would just see a Pride March as a fancy dress parade, it wouldn’t occur to them to see it in a sexual context. Even the leather clad S&Mers would just look like people playing prisoner and jailer.

So what’s the problem?

Children as young as six can understand this concept.

When you tell children young, you bypass homophobia and normalize bisexuality.

Although kids still get indoctrinated in homophobia in Junior HS, they already know that being bi or gay is normal.

After junior high, it’s harder because they have already been convinced that gay is bad.

In my son’s case, I told him about gay before we went to a gay picnic when he was six and I told him about bisexual when he heard it on my answering machine when he was 8. I took him to march in Pride a couple of times and used to take him with me to the LGBT Community Center. I couldnt afford babysitters, so wherever I went, he went, unless he was with his dad.

My son turned out very heterosexual and doesnt come with me to anything bi or gay anymore but he is very supportive and has even dated a few bi women (he’s now 25.)

Well frankly I think you missed the point of the post, which was to highlight the fact that homosexuality is still considered by many people to be something perverse that children should not be exposed to.

This to address your points, I don’t know what pride marches you’ve seen, but I’ve never seen S&M showcased in a way that would be obscene or offensive during a pride march. In fact the leather clad S&Mers leading each other around with dog-leads, is most likely to go completely over a child’s head and would probably be regarded as just another act in what many children would see as a rather weird, gaily coloured carnival procession, with a lot of people in drag.

Contrast any pride march with an BDSM street festival organised by the society of Janus in San Francisco and a Pride March looks rather more like a fancy dress party.

As for topless women? What’s your hang-up? Are you some kind of puritan? Every child who was breast fed has seen a nipple. Maybe we have a culture gap here, but when I was growing up in the 1980′s and 1990′s every beach or hotel pool in Europe was clad with topless women, the trend seems to have faded somewhat in the last 10 years, but honestly I don’t consider boobs to be obscene and I don’t suspect children do either.

At the end of the day we pass our prejudices and sexual hangups onto our children, we burden them with guilt about their own bodies, yet left to their own devices they’d be like babes in the woods.

The innocence of Adam and Eve live in every child born to this planet until we adults corrupt them with shame and guilt. That might sound a little new-age hippy (which I’m not) but it certainly is looking beyond my nose.