March in the Boston Pride Parade; Tips for Talking with Your Child About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Warm weather is finally here and that means the Boston Pride Parade is just around the corner.

Bring your family on June 8^th to the Boston Pride Parade – you can cheer from the sidelines or join me and Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) to walk!  

Pride is a great way to kick off the summer and show your support for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) patients, staff, students, supporters, and community. Whether we’re providing non-judgmental care in our health centers, talking with parents and students about sexual orientation and gender identity, or partnering with MassEquality and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition to advance LGBT equality in our state, PPLM is proud to support the LBGT community – no matter what.

Please join fellow friends of PPLM and cheer for us or walk with us in the Boston Pride Parade. We will meet at 11AM on Saturday, June 8 in Boston – further details to come, all you have to do is RSVP!

If you plan to watch the parade, we look forward to seeing you there! It will be a fun and inspiring day and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Tips for Talking with Your Child About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

When talking about sexual orientation and gender identity, many different terms may be used. These definitions can help make conversations with our children more understandable.

Sexual orientation refers to a person's physical, emotional, and romantic attraction to individuals of the same and/or opposite gender. Heterosexual (or straight) refers to a person who is attracted to and/or falls in love with someone of the other gender. Homosexual (or gay or lesbian) refers to a person who is attracted to and/or falls in love with someone of the same gender. Bisexual refers to a person who is attracted to and/or falls in love with someone of either gender. Questioning refers to a person who is unsure of or exploring their sexual orientation. Some people know from a young age that they are attracted to people of the same or opposite gender. For others, it can be an evolving process.

No one knows for certain why people have different sexual orientations. There are many theories including genetics, prenatal and socio-cultural influences, and psychosocial factors, as well as a combination of all of these. But we do know that sexual orientation is not something that is chosen. Nor is it something that can be changed by medicine or therapy.

Gender identity is a person's internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or a boy or a girl.) Transgender describes a person whose internal feelings of being male or female differ from the sexual anatomy they were born with. Some people ask, "Isn't transgender just like being gay?" No. Transgender describes a person's internal sense of gender identity while gay is a term describing a person's sexual orientation, in other words, their feelings of physical, emotional, and romantic attraction toward other people. Transgender people have some issues in common with gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities like: "coming out" (when a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender person tells another person her/his sexual orientation or gender identity), access to non-judgmental health care, self-esteem, and violence. However, gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation.

Before talking with your children, it's helpful to consider the messages you want to share.  You might want to share the following using clear, age-appropriate language:

• Every culture and society has people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, heterosexual, and transgender.
• People's beliefs about sexual orientation are based on their religious, cultural, and family values.
• Some people are afraid to share that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, or transgender because they fear they will be mistreated or misunderstood.
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, and transgender people can adopt children or have their own children.
• People who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, or transgender engage in many of the same sexual behaviors as heterosexual people.
• There are young people who have sexual thoughts and experiences with people of the same gender, but do not consider themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, transgender, and heterosexual people can establish lifelong committed relationships.