Kids in school now are going to know kids who have same-sex parents. They're possibly going to have same-sex parents themselves. They're going to know interracial families with mixed religions, blended families, and kids who identify as LGBT.
- There are over 1 million legally married same-sex couples in the U.S. alone.
- Some more statistics:
- Approximately 4.3% of adults in the U.S. identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). That means that there are more than 10.7 million LGBTQ adults in the U.S.
- Among LGBTQ adults under 50 living alone or with a spouse or partner, 48% of women and 20% of men are raising a child who is under 18 years old
- LGBTQ people and same-sex couples are more likely to foster and adopt than their non-LGBTQ counterparts. Same-sex couples are six times more likely to foster children, and at least 4 times more likely to adopt.
See especially: Gates, Gary J. "Marriage and Family: LGBT Individuals and Same-Sex Couples."
The Future of Children. Vol. 25 No. 2: 67–87. Fall, 2015 for data about same-sex parents with children.
You are speaking to someone who has 30 yrs experience in this area.
I was certified to teach K-12 in 1983.
I started working as a literacy volunteer with kids in libraries in 1976.
I started working in publishing in 1990.
I absolutely know that there are more people who aren't homophobic than there are people horrified by the very concept of same-sex relationships, and families. 2014 pretty much proved that in the United States.
Yes, some parents are not going to want their kids
exposed to same-sex marriage, male penguins raising a baby penguin, or books with Black people or Jews or divorced parents or inter-racial families or Walloons. That's their business. Just like it's the business of parents who
do want their kids reading about the real world to help their kids find those books.
Some teachers don't want allow those books in their classrooms. Or, frankly, those kids.
But there are
publishers and literary agents and parents and kids and teachers and kids who do want them. Quite desperately, sometimes. Now that may not be
sophisticated but it is human.
And someone needs to write those books. Because their readership isn't declining; it's growing.