A lot of toys and companies aimed at children and teenagers are supporting LGBT rights and it shows in their products. Many comic books, including those aimed at kids, are featuring same-sex couples and marriages. Some toys come in pairs (Like couples toys) of the same sex or they feature men dressing flamboyantly or in women's clothes. Would you buy these for your kids? I would, I'm the B in LGBT and I support this. The kids I know aren't getting any less enjoyment out of these toys and comic books.
I now have grandchildren to buy toys and books for, and my daughter is a lesbian, but we would not buy same sex oriented toys and books for the girls. The early years are confusing enough, without introducing the concept of minority relationships - and LGBT relationships are in the minority. Frankly, I question the motives of the people who manufacture such products. It strikes me as nothing more than a cynical attempt to cash in on current debates.
I do support LGBT rights and products and my teenager came out as bisexual, so I have no problem with buying her Yaoi or Yuri manga books which feature same sex couples. We watch RuPaul's Drag Race and cheer for our favorite queens. None of this stuff bothers me. Let people be themselves and love who they love.
I wouldn't go out of my way to purchase these, but if something caught my eye and I liked it than I would purchase it. I teach my children that all of us are equal and we love who we want to love whatever their sex is. I don't think I would have to buy special toys to teach them what I've already taught them.
I don't think it's very difficult to explain LGBT relationships to kids. I've been involved several times when kids asked about it and it usually goes along the lines of; "Well, some boys like to kiss boys and some girls like to kiss girls and some people like to kiss both." 'Oh, ok.' An average of about 10 percent of people are LGBT and 10 percent of a few hundred million is still millions of people. Kids are bound to find out about them sooner or later.
I don't think that confuses anything any more. Instead, I think it just makes it known from an early age that everybody can love everybody else. I wouldn't buy only products that featured two white people, despite that being the most common relationship in my area. I would want to show that diversity early on...and feel the same about two men or two women being together, too. It opens up the conversation if there are any questions at some point, but otherwise, it just makes it feel 'normal.'
I love love love reading yaoi and some yuri mangas and most of them are LGBT friendly i would know cux i read a LOT of it everyday hahaha and I know what they contain and i can only tell you one thing, DONT BUY IT FOR YOUR KIDS. It's like youre basically buying your kid porn magz! There are a FEW yaoi mangas that depict only lovey dovey and NON sexual content in it but MOST of them are filled with hard porn. Yaoi and yuri mangas were made for the more "older" audience so its a big NO NO. But .... I did start reading yaoi mangas when i was 12 teeheehee so maybe other kids like me must have enjoyed them at a young age like i did but its not an excuse to go run to the store and buy it for your kids. UNLESS you make sure that the manga you want to purchase for your kids are Really LGBT friendly, dont have curse word and do NOT have any pornographic images. Kissing is fine anything below the chin is not hahahah Do your research please so you wont be THAT parent that buys their kids their first porno hahaha
As a child, my family never "sat me down" to explain differences to me.. that's a big way to send the message that something is wrong with whatever group we're talking about. What's the big deal? I was exposed to gay relationships from an early age and so I never thought much about it. If they don't have much variety in relationships around them, it takes nothing to explain it if they have questions, but most kids won't unless they were brought up with people pushing the idea that only men and women can be together.. which most do in even the most subtle ways that condition their children. Otherwise, they wouldn't think twice about seeing a same sex couple together.. just another part of life. They aren't born with our history or their parents views. If you treat everyone the same, so will they.. no discussion necessary. The people they might actually need to be "sat down for" are the bigots..
Very true. I used to be a homophobe (shame on me) but beacsue of the new trending shows like modern family, and the new normal I became accustomed .. No wait ... Accepting! but before all of this came on air i read a story on this one site. I think it was Awesoemdude.com. I read a story where I saw what the LGBT people went through. All the hardships, pain, suffering and loss. It opened my eyes and made me realize what an asshole i was even at a young age. So i totally agree on exposing your kids to LGBT friendly content at a Young age !!!!! They wont ask questions because its not like the idea that a man can only love a woman is already in their brains that moment they popped out ! You just introduce it like any normal fact and voila !! You have a kid that wont grow up to be an asshole. Hahaha
So awesome I remember so clearly when I first learned about the hatred out there towards differences (as I said.. most children don't see them until they're pointed out). I learned about racism through tv, nobody sat me down to tell me people have different skin colours lol, I had eyes. I learned about "the closet" through tv, nobody sat me down and told me sometimes men love men and women love women.. again, I had eyes, of course people love each other, what's their sex have to do with it; so weird lol. That confused me. It wasn't the skin colour or the different types of family or couples I was sat down to talk about.. it was the bigotry that needed to be explained to me. It seems my family was a bit ahead of their time.. I appreciate more now than ever how they allowed me to take the world in as my own instead of what they wanted me to see. I accepted life as is.. that's what children do. If nobody interferes with their perspective, whatever is in front of us as children, we accept as our world. Their questions will never come from a place of hatred or judgement and the answers they get must be just as untainted. We aren't born homophobes or racists.. we're conditioned by them. I'm so happy you were able to see the truth and empathized. The world becomes a better place with each new set of eyes that open. We need to look at all opressed and realize, "that could be me".. and oooh how everyone's tune would change if it were.
I don't know... I've actually never seen any LBGT toys in stores, maybe it's because I live in The Bible Belt. But, I let my daughter pick her own toys and if she wanted a gay Barbie or whatever, I'd get it... who cares? Ya know? But, I'm not going to shove gay-rights down her throat, or civil-rights... or anything else for that matter. When she asked about it I'll tell her all about it in a very P.C. way. But, the reality is that she's only two and all she really cares about right now is watch Frozen on repeat and baby dolls.
It doesn't make sense to manufacture LGBT-anything for kids. We're talking about children here. If Tommy wants to play with dolls, give him a doll. If little Suzie wants to play with action figures, why not? Children will play with whatever they want. Often, it's not the equipment but the mentality of the people using and providing them that should be improved.
I have not felt the need to purchase lgbt toys because so far it seems like my nephews and nieces are all straight and I don't think it's available here anyway. If I felt like they needed it like they would be able to identify with the specific toys a lot better I'd definitely seek it out and have it shipped overseas if I had to. For the most part we just let them pick whatever they want and if they need guidance they know the communication lines are open so if don't feel much need to make the decisions myself that much in terms of choosing what to give them.
I've never heard of LGBT-friendly products made for kids but if the prices are match regular products for kids I would buy them. However if they are slightly expensive I don't think I would. In any case I think if the kids aren't that young they should help you out and pick the stuff they want, that's assuming you are shopping online.
So far, I haven't seen any of these LGBT toys here in my country. But if I do see them, I would buy them especially if my nieces and nephews liked them. My son though adores cars and I don't know if there are LGBT-friendly car toys. But yeah, as far as dolls and story books go, why not? I think it's a great way to tell these children that the LGBT community are a normal part of the society. I think they have started making different colours of dolls as well. And I sure wish they include races too so that we have more options. Gone are the days where dolls are only blond and fair-skinned. I've seen dolls with dark and brown skin and it had made me happy. More than that, how about boys playing with dolls or maybe cooking sets? Actually, I'm deciding whether to buy a cooking set for my son. It's a great imaginative playing set that I think he might enjoy.
