Teaching young children about the existence and acceptance of LGBTQ people

"Even though there has been a lot of progress, LGBTQ youth are still struggling with discrimination. I am disheartened that 40 percent of LGBTQ youth surveyed by the Trevor project in 2020 seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, and the amount of LGBTQ youth reaching out to the Trevor project crisis centers has doubled at times during the COVID 19 pandemic.

I have pediatric patients in my clinic tell me that they are nervous to reveal their sexual identities to family and friends. Many of my young LGBTQ patients have mental health issues. According to a recent Human Rights Campaign survey, only 26 percent of LGBTQ teens say they always feel safe in their school classrooms. Only five percent of LGBTQ teens say all of their teachers and school staff support LGBTQ people. Additionally, sixty-seven percent of LGBTQ teens report that they have heard family members make negative comments about LGBTQ people. Many LGBTQ youths are still homeless. It is clear that there is much more work that needs to be done."

Alexis Smith is a family physician.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "The importance of teaching young children about the existence and acceptance of LGBTQ people." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/03/the-importance-of-teaching-young-children-about-the-existence-and-acceptance-of-lgbtq-people.html)