11 year old at LGBTQ school lunch club

[Hunnybadger1]

Just wondering what the general thoughts are on schools having clubs like this for 11 year olds? I personally feel like I’d rather my child went to a general interest club, or hung out in the library, as it feels young to be labelling themselves sexually. It’s such minefield for parenting and obviously don’t want to make them feel self conscious / close down communication so am being supportive but also asking them if they have other interests they want to explore too.

It’s not for dating, it’s for finding others like you and not feeling so alone! Don’t you remember what it’s like being a teenager and wondering if you’re weird and having a hundred things that you think make you different to everyone else? Sexuality is such a big deal for teens, being LGBTQ puts you in the minority, and there is still a lot of prejudice around; teens need somewhere to go where they can feel they can talk about these things without feeling judged.

DD went to one for a while.

It was supervised by pastoral staff, and basically was a place to chat, not a dating agency. DD felt she didn't fit in, and was wondering whether it might be because of sexuality.

In the end, 3-4 years later she has decided that she is heterosexual, and didnt fit in because a) she is clear on her interests and ideas and that clashes with peer pressure, and b) most of her peers who seemed to 'fit in' were also feeling that they didn't fit in.

Whatever she decided about her sexuality would have been fine with me.

She tried various other lunchtime clubs as well.

I'm not in anyway homophobic. It isn't the 80s anymore, in most environments people won't bat an eyelid if you're LGB. In schools these days if you're at least Bi, can you even be popular?

Being LGB isn't a hobby. It is a sexual preference. I see it like are you attracted to skinny men or muscular men, either is fine, it is also fine to change at any point if that is how you feel. I think the less that is done to make it seem like it is a niche club rather than the norm, the better - it is the opposite of inclusivity. Just like providing a guarded safe space for fat kids is worse solution that teaching that fat shaming is not acceptable.

LGB is about sexual preference but T++ isn’t, so they don’t belong in that club.

T++ people are usually straight and very often homophobic too and it’s about time the LGB community divorced the T from their ranks.

I have a gay son and he attends the local YMCA club but I’m not at all happy that they include and affirm the T++ brigade as kids shouldn’t be coerced into automatically accepting other people's predatory delusions.

They literally have. Read ‘The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes’.

Most isnt none

Most gay people will experience homophobia

I went to a school where it was mostly accepted , but was in a home environment where it wasn't

Homophobia amongst teen boys is a particular problem. Being gay is still used as a punchline, insult etc

We aren't in the utopia where sexuality doesn't matter yet and are only a stone throw away from horrors of the past.

Current Teachers at the school could have easily taught for decades under section 28, where you couldnt mention gay people, some of them born when it was still illegal to gay, lots adults in the height of gay stigma. Lots of teachers raised in homophobic house holds

Many of the pupils will be from countries where it's still illegal to be gay. Its a lot of change in a short period.

In my grandads life for example, he went from seeing gay friends criminalised, protests against homosexuality, the fear of the aids crisis etc. The people that were about then haven't magically disappeared or stop influencing gay people's lives

When my daughter was struggling with MH issues post traumatic bereavement, as a 13 YO, the only ongoing supportive space the school could offer was the LGBT club. She didn't go, I'm glad. What shocked me most was that anyone struggling, regardless of 'leanings' was pushed towards this only. Why are there no other 'supportive' groups at schools, with enticing 'snacks' and all that? It is insidious and creepy.

It literally hasn't. That case (conveniently written in 2021 during the height of the trans mania, and never heard of before then) was from only the 1930s, and was about a female identifying as a man in a time where females had few rights, for inheritance. Nothing to do with transgender going back millennia.