Myth Busting
Elementary Children Will Be Confused by Access to Information
About Same-Gender Families and LGBT Issues
Clear, accurate, age-appropriate information should not be confusing
to anyone. Some adults underestimate the ability of children to
understand unfamiliar concepts. Teaching is about helping students
to think critically and to understand the diversity of the world
around them. Access to information about families with two moms
or dads can only help to promote appreciation and support of all
students and the families they live in.
LGBTs are Promiscuous or Somehow More Sexual Than Non-LGBTs
This is a stereotype propagated by the fact that
those individuals who are promiscuous are the most visible. As more
and more gays and lesbians “come out”, the promiscuous stereotype
diminishes. Events such as Pride Day and the Stonewall Festival help
LGBT people to identify as a diverse community in the same way that
heterosexuals and non-transgendered persons do. Moreover, LGBT people
are just as capable of stable, monogamous, committed relationships
as anyone else. Queer couples often disappear from the urban LGBT
communities to live and raise their families in the suburbs or the
country where they may be less visible. Another issue around this
myth is that being LGBT is only about sex. LGBT people live full lives,
which includes shopping for groceries, doing the laundry, raising
children, planting a garden and going to work everyday. Being LGBT
is about who you love emotionally, intellectually and sexually and
how you identify yourself.
LGBT People Can Be Identified by Certain Mannerisms, Clothing
or Physical Characteristics
LGBT people come in as many different shapes, sizes and colours
as do heterosexuals. Some LGBT people can be identified by stereotypical
mannerisms and characteristics. However, many heterosexuals also
display these same mannerisms and characteristics, such as that
of the “tomboy” or the “effeminate” male. Today, fewer LGBT people
feel they must dress to pass in the mainstream community and some
LGBT people choose to make a political statement through their appearance.
Most LGB People Could Be Cured by Psychotherapy or “Orientation
Reparative Therapy”
There are no cures. There is no illness. Psychologists,
psychiatrists and mental health professionals agree that mental well
being and emotional stability are defined as an individual’s ability
to live a fully functioning life. They also agree that homosexuality
is not an illness, mental disorder or emotional problem.
In the past, biased information was used to describe homosexuality.
In 1973, after 35 years of research, the American Psychiatric Association
removed homosexuality from its list of disorders. Then, in 1975, the
American Psychological Association went further to state that, ‘Homosexuality
implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability or general
social or occupational capacities.” Both associations now urge mental
health professionals to help dispel the myth that homosexuality is
a mental disorder.
In 1990, the American Psychological Association stated that scientific
evidence does not show that conversion therapy works. Changing one’s
orientation does not correspond with changing one’s behaviour. To
change one’s orientation would require altering one’s emotional, affectional
and sexual feelings and reconstructing one’s self-concept and self-identity.
Furthermore, the APA pointed out that therapists who undertake this
kind of therapy usually come from organizations with an ideological
perspective against homosexuality. The APA has specifically stated
that “orientation reparative therapy” (conversion therapy) is not
recognized as a valid form of therapy.
LGB People Do Not Make Good Parents
Research has shown that, except for the fact that
the children of a homosexual couple are often concerned about being
stigmatized by their peers, they show no higher incidence of emotional
disturbance than do children of heterosexual couples. Nor are they
confused about their own sexual identity. LGB people come from all
kinds of families, as do heterosexuals, and there is no correlation
between the sexual orientation of parents and that of their children.
The chances of a child being LGB are the same whether they are raised
by LGB parents or by heterosexual parents: 7 – 10%.
Bisexuals Are Going Through a Phase, Confused, Undecided, or
Fence-sitting
Some people go through a transitional period of
bisexuality on their way to adopting a lesbian/gay or heterosexual
identity. For many others bisexuality remains a long-term orientation.
For some bisexuals, homosexuality was a transitional phase in their
coming out as bisexuals. Many bisexuals may well be confused, living
in a society where their sexuality is denied by homosexuals and heterosexuals
alike, but that confusion is a function of oppression. Fence-sitting
is a misnomer; there is no "fence" between homosexuality
and heterosexuality except in the minds of people who rigidly divide
the two. The most appreciated philosophy from a bisexual perspective
is that sexual orientation falls onto a continuum. It is also said
by some that they 'love people, not their genders'.
|
