Most of the time, living in a LGBT-headed family is like living in any other family—that delightful and exhausting balance of chores, laughter, meals, arguments, and cozy times. Most months, our stories come out of these shared experiences. This month, both of our stories deal with name-calling based on a child’s family status.
Why? Every once in a while it’s important that we check in with our children about how they experience their family structure in the outside world. If we are LGBT parents, we need to support them as they find ways to respond to the fact that many children will not have encountered a family like theirs before, and some may be prejudiced against LGBT people. Whether you are part of an LGBT-headed family or you are an ally, we hope these stories serve as a springboard for a discussion about how to handle harassment of any kind, whether it’s directed at your child or someone else.
I was recently reading hate crime statistics, and I learned that over 50 percent of hate crimes committed in 2006 were based on race. Regardless of our race or the race of our children, it’s important that we discuss responding to racial harassment as well. Last year Rainbow Rumpus began a partnership with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to increase the reach and effectiveness of “No Name-Calling Week.” The week focuses on giving youth and school personnel the tools to eliminate bullying, whether based on a person’s size, religion, race, LGBT status, or any other factor. This year we are expanding the partnership, and we hope you’ll join us.
No Name-Calling Week takes place January 21–25, 2008. GLSEN has created curricula for elementary, middle, and high school students. They work with individual teachers, schools, and districts. District administrators are generally thrilled by parent and community involvement in creating positive school climates. You can call your superintendent’s office and ask whom you should talk to about helping the district to participate in the week. You can also encourage your local school or your child’s classroom to participate. Print out the PDF teacher’s guides and share them with your children’s teachers. You can access more No Name-Calling Week curricula and information at www.nonamecallingweek.org
This winter Rainbow Rumpus will again recognize the youth, schools, and districts that are winners in the Creative Expression Contest and/or exemplary participants in No Name-Calling Week. If your child or teen participates, and/or if you work with your school or district, we’d love to interview you as well. Let us know about your participation and desire to be interviewed by emailing admin@rainbowrumpus.org. Work for inclusion makes everyone a winner, and we’d like to recognize as many participants as possible.
This is also a good time to find out what kind of policies your school, school district, and state have in regards to bullying and harassment. You can help to make sure your district has a policy that covers children of LGBT parents. Children of LGBT parents are only protected by law if the policy includes protection for those associated with people identified or perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. In many states there are now laws requiring districts to have a harassment policy, but some districts haven’t gotten around to creating them. For more information on how to find out about the policies where you live, and what to do next to make your community’s schools more inclusive, click here to use Family Pride’s interactive Rainbow Report Card.
At Rainbow Rumpus, we believe that creating inclusive communities is as much about saying yes as saying no. We believe that creating and sharing stories that engage everyone in the lived realities of race, having LGBT parents, adoption, and other factors are vitally important at the same time that we create policies that protect our families. Clearly many people are hungering for this type of affirmation: we are now averaging over 250 site visits a day. As you share curricula and policies with schools, we hope you share stories too. Share stories about why the safety and inclusion of LGBT-headed families are important to you. Buy a Two Lives book package for a classroom or school library. (See the link beside this article.) Make a CD of Rainbow Rumpus stories by downloading them here and sharing them with an elementary school or preschool teacher. Ask a teacher to share a story or article from Rainbow Rumpus with his or her class on a monthly basis. Get involved with the Families All Matter book project (see below). By both sharing stories and creating policies we build a world that welcomes all families.
