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Sophitzmoments wrote: It could be because of the age range for KotLC (8-12, though that isn't very accurate). Some unsespecting 8-year old could read it and be a bit to young and may get upset. I am not trying to hate, if it came across as rude i'm sorry, but my 8 y/o brother hasnt even had "the talk".
TW for mentions of internalized homophobia, self-hatred, suicide
I get it, I really do, but think for a moment. Today, eight year olds are starting to have "crushes" (at least they think they are, whether they're real crushes is another question altogether). They're beginning puberty (at least some eight year olds with female bodies are). And when they're 9 or 10, only a couple years later, they're beginning health class.
So all of this goes to say, eight year olds are more mature than many people like to think they are. When I was eight, I knew about crushes and love. I even had crushes on other kids. But I didn't know what the words "straight" or "LGBTQ+" meant until I was in at least fifth grade. That wasn't because it wasn't necessary or appropriate for me to learn about this at age eight; no, quite the opposite. I'm a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and I might have found my people, and found other LGBTQ+ people like me, much earlier if I'd known that LGBTQ+ was a thing. I might have been a happier person. I think that, when I was younger, I kind of repressed my feelings for other girls. I think sub-consciously, because I didn't know about LGBTQ+ people, and that it's okay to feel this way, I repressed these feelings and didn't acknowledge them until about a year ago, when I started middle school.
I didn't face a lot of internalized homophobia and self-hate, because I just refused to acknowledge my non-straight feelings, but I have friends who did face those challenges. The things that cause people to commit suicide. And if they'd known about the LGBTQ+ community, and had felt welcomed there earlier in their lives, they might have been able to battle that internalized homophobia and self-hate much earlier. They might have saved themselves from a lot of pain.
So I think that, no offense, but kids should learn about LGBTQ+ people, and LGBTQ+ crushes and love, as soon as they learn about straight people, and straight crushes and love.
Also, LGBTQ+ isn't just people who love differently than straight people. It's also people who have a different gender than their sex assigned at birth.
Kids know their assigned sex basically as soon as they can talk. Yet children often don't know about LGBTQ+ people, and don't know that their chosen gender doesn't have to align with their assigned sex, until much later than that. Because of this, kids might not feel comfortable being their true selves, and choosing their own gender, for a good-sized portion of their childhood.
This can be very harmful, and cause a lot of unnecessary pain, if young kids have to hide their true selves, because they don't know that it's okay to be who they are.
So, like I said, I don't want to start an argument, just kids know about straight and cisgender people (they might not know those words for a while, because they just think of them as what's "normal," but they do know about boy-girl love, and often think of boys and girls as hard, unflexible things, that you can't change.) much earlier than they know about LGBTQ+ people. This can be very harmful to LGBTQ+ kids.