LA VIE EN ROSE PAS

Some people are desperate to see gays and lesbians fail as parents. They sit on the sidelines ready to pounce at the first signs of ‘sub-standard’ or ‘degenerative’ behaviour from the children and they are quite clear in regards to what they are looking for: homosexuals begetting homosexuals.

In our world it seems that when a straight couple has a GLBT child, it’s unfortunate but when GLBT couple has a GLBT child, it’s suspicious. It never occurs to them that for most queers their own families would have consciously or subconsciuoulsy always advocated heterosexuality and that most queers come from straight parents. A simple fact for us, a seemingly impossible conundrum for these types.

Recently, lesbian friends of mine have become the victims of a witch hunt because their four-year-old son is not conforming to gender norms. He wears dresses, likes pigtails, and is anything but a shining example of the male to masculine continuum. At four years-of-age, he has become a major point of contention at his preschool. Not among the kids however, among the adults.

The teachers at his preschool are concerned that if he does not curb his cross-dressing ways he will eventually be subjected to ridicule and probable physical abuse. They concede that he is probably safe now but that one day his fellow four-year-olds will be eight-year-olds and eight-year-olds will almost certainly not tolerate a boy in a skirt.

The teacher has strongly suggested to his parents that they should modify his behaviour to avoid the inevitable because it seems educating and modifying the behaviour of potential bullies is out of the question. And while we are all aware of the possible danger he could be in if he chooses to continue frocking up, I couldn’t help but wonder if his parents had have been straight would they have been called in for that chat.

My friends also had this sneaking suspicion and so they asked other parents whose little boys occasionally don a dress if they had been approached and the answer was a resounding no. Not surprisingly, not one of these parents is gay or lesbian.

As my friends informed their son’s teacher that they had no intention of forcing him to wear pants, the scrutiny has increased. The teachers have also continued to offer ‘helpful’ advice such as suggesting my friends tell their son they have lost all of his ‘girl’ clothes.

While the preschool is obviously quite comfortable leaving parenting up to the straight parents, they seem to feel an obligation to educate the lesbians on how to parent theirs. The lesbian’s son dressing in girls clothing is proof to them of what they always suspected, and their self-righteousness runneth over. Score one to them.

Rachel Cook

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