Florida Should Allow Parental Rights But Not By Discrimination Of L.G.B.T.Q. Children

Reasonableness is a commodity that is in short supply today. That is especially true when it comes to most hot-button topics.

Why has everything turned into a war about our individual values? Is it because we are lacking in civility as a nation? It seems to me that everybody is trying to push their moral ideas down everyone else’s throats. We have devolved into a bunch of whining babies with many people screaming about their rights but having no regard how it affects others.

I am in favor of parents having the ability to guide their child’s education. That includes what and when they learn about sex and sexual orientation. However, parents should understand if kids don’t learn something in school, their friends and the broader society are anxious to explain with as much inaccurate information as possible.

As a child, I never thought I was anything but a male heterosexual. It was easy for me and the other children that were heterosexual. But there was always some that were “different.”

By third or fourth grade, kids had a broad knowledge of the birds and the bees. I don’t remember any classmate “coming out,” but one or two were suspected “queers” as was the term then used. There was no one adult in school that a child could speak to about their feelings of being “different” and what that meant. There was also no place for heterosexual kids to learn that not everyone had their same orientation and that was ok.

Are we now going to go back to the 1950s and 1960s when children better keep their mouths shut and keep those feelings to themselves if they were not heterosexual? How much psychological damage did that do to kids? Does anyone believe that if homosexuality is not discussed, it ceases to exist?

I understand the other side too. For many Americans, all this talk of LGBTQ+ has become overwhelming. They do not see any need for kids in the younger grades to be exposed to that anymore than they should be exposed to lessons about straight sex. There is an appropriate time for this to occur. It just isn’t when kids are still believing in Santa and the tooth fairy.

That does not mean that children of all persuasions should not have a safe place to discuss their sexual awakening. For most kids, they may be more comfortable talking to a school councilor than mom about any desires they may be having. Sex…