It’s cute some of y’all think children are so naive and that they wouldn’t talk about things like sexual orientation and sex in general on their own. Maybe a guided, short on details conversation with a trusted adult wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Thinking back to my own childhood in the late 80s, early 90s, we played “smear the queer” on the playground. We called each other gay and f-gs as an insult starting in about first grade. We talked (inaccurately) about sex among ourselves on the bus in third grade. We used to spit raunchy sex-based 2 Live Crew rhymes in 4th grade on the bus or on the playground. Most of us started whacking off in sixth or seventh grade. Many of my peers lost their virginity in 9th or 10th grade. (It took me to 12th grade, dammit. Best 18 seconds of her life!)
I knew what a gay person was conceptually before I was 8. I knew what a trans person was around age 10 (we called them transvestites and cross dressers back then). All of this shit ain’t new. My sex ed unit didnt cover homosexuality or gender identity because that stuff was super taboo back in the day, but not many people under 40 give a shit today.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that these topics are added to curriculums as norms evolve. Just like my generation got to learn about safe sex, contraception and STDs, my parents were taught abstinence only (naivety strikes again) and freaked the hell out knowing we were learning about rubbers and pills. They stupidly thought we were being encouraged or even “groomed” to have sex rather than taught how to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy. Point being, social positions evolve as time moves forward.
As I said earlier, when they turn 10, they’re ready to have these discussions because most 12 year olds can make a baby despite not being physically, mentally, emotionally or financially mature enough to handle such a large responsibility. I knew I liked girls by age 12 and wanted to stick my pecker in the first wet hole I could find. I’m sure the kids who are attracted to the same sex or feel like they’re a ____ trapped in a ___’s body know at an early age as well. The trans person from childhood I’m pretty good friends with said they knew as early as elementary school that they weren’t like the other boys, couldn’t explain the feelings until their teen years, but wasn’t comfortable coming out until adulthood because of the social stigma of being a trans person in rural Kentucky.
Ain’t nobody trying to make your kids gay or trans. Your kids are more likely to be sexually abused by a clergy member or heterosexual teacher than a gay or trans person. In a state that ranks bottom 10 in infant mortality, child poverty rate and damn near any other quality of life metric, we got bigger fish to fry than worrying about LGBT issues as if this is high priority stuff.