A fifth-grade school teacher in Georgia got fired for reading a book to her students about self-acceptance. The book is My Shadow is Purple (see video at the end of this article).
The book’s message is about accepting yourself. It’s about embracing diversity, complex identities, and experiences.
If you have a gay kid in your family, they struggle with feeling different from people they know. Not only their friends and family but the world.
Some Definitions
Cisgender refers to a person’s gender identity assigned at birth. It matches the societal expectations associated with their biological gender.
Heterosexuality is an orientation where individuals are primarily attracted to people of the opposite gender. It is often referred to as being “straight.”
Heteronormativity is the belief that heterosexuality is the default and expected gender orientation. This leads many people to assume that everyone is cisgender and attracted to the opposite gender. This perspective marginalizes non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities.
How The World Is Set Up
Everything in this world is set up for straight people.
So imagine that you’re gay and you’re young.
You know it well before you tell anybody.
And what do you feel? You feel alone. You feel other.
It’s a big deal when you see yourself in a book like this. It is a powerful thing. It matters. Representation matters.
If you’re someone who thinks firing that Georgia teacher is a good thing, I don’t know how you can. Because it goes against every democratic ideal, every free speech ideal, it goes against loving our kids.
Representation And Acceptance
When a kid sees themselves in a book, it makes them happy. It makes them feel seen. And loved. And accepted. That should be our entire life’s purpose for any kid.
If you were that kid’s parent, your life purpose and mission would be to make your kid feel seen, loved, and accepted. If you have a kid, you know exactly what that means. If you don’t have kids, I’m sure you can imagine it.
Compassion, understanding, love and acceptance. Values that everyone should embrace.
For the sake of our kids and great teachers who are being ousted for the stupidest reasons imaginable from their jobs. Let’s do better for all of our kids.