This afternoon, my second-grade son came home from school asking me what the word “rape” means. He said some big kids were joking about raping their girlfriends on the bus. I thought, how do I explain this? He doesn’t even know what sex is. Then something occurred to me.
Last week, I had the misfortune of listening to about a dozen people complain to the FVRLibraries Board of Trustees about drag queen story hour, a library program that has been defunct for almost four years. Two of them used their time to lambast this newspaper for misquoting one of them in a prior article. They claimed all kinds of vile misinformation about trans folks and drag queens, all agreeing with one another that drag queen story hour exposes children to sexuality they are too innocent for.
Well, my son was at the last story hour. He also knows all about gay folks (we have loved ones who are gay), and trans folks (ditto). He still doesn’t know anything about sex yet. Because who you love and who you are aren’t inherently sexual aspects of your identity. If my 8-year-old understands this, I don’t know why these adults cannot.
