Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Children have ideas about behaviors, activities and toys that go with gender. From their very early years they are quick to classify gender based on the external and cultural stereotypical gender identity like: Boys don’t have long hair, only girls’ play with dolls, boys are strong, daddy cannot cook, only mommies change diapers and so on. These typical and acceptable gender roles may differ from culture to culture but nevertheless children learn them in their very early childhood years within their families and communities and can continue these beliefs into adulthood. Living in a multicultural community, I am aware of such male and female gender expectations that adults practices and teaches. Media and marketing influence today’s children about what it means to be a boy and girl, about the nature of sex and sexuality and limits children’s definition of gender and sexuality to primarily on appearance. Boys are often the action heroes and girls the damsels in distress. Violent games target boys and sexual imagery to sell products to girls. Such bias related to gender can limit children’s learning behaviors.

Sometimes these biases can become so dreadful that it can surmount to homophobia. Heterosexism pervades nowadays in much of the societal customs and institutions. Without realizing it we may often keep our children, be it our own or the students we teach, from moving outside their assigned gender roles. I have noticed how I myself have sometimes unknowingly perpetuated such biases. For example, when I had a boy student who insisted on choosing pink color every time for his coloring, how I encouraged him to try other colors as well or when my son picks up Dora or hello kitty ball at the store, how I make him put that back and give him a Spiderman or cars ball instead. I know that just because boys color with pink or play with balls with Dora print on it does not make them homosexuals, or transgender. But I also know that encouraging and guiding children on the right track from their very young age can enable them to develop their fullest range of abilities and skills needed to succeed in school and life. 

This attitude probably stems from my cultural ideologies and intergroup relations. Being from a Christian faith and believing that homosexual behavior is a sin and is against the will of God, I find it difficult to agree with many leaders and specialists from a range of sociocultural backgrounds who considers homosexuality to be a normal variant of human behavior. And therefore I also find it inappropriate to include gay and lesbian equity issues in the early childhood curricula. Moreover, such homosexual issues is neither seen nor heard in the community I live in and so I find it irrelevant for such inclusions. Since invisibility erases identity; I don’t feel as an early childhood educator I should initiate such a thought into the little minds. Especially when early childhood teachers have a profound effect on children, through curricula and pedagogies, issues made known and issues kept silent can influence the young children’s perception of diversity and difference, gender and sexual orientation. Considering homosexual as normal and introducing it into the early childhood curricula would only ultimately produce a world of more transgender, lesbian and gay people.

As early childhood educators we have the responsibility to support all children in their development, pay attention to the diversity and equity in relation to gender identity, and check ourselves to make sure we do not perpetuate bias unknowingly, so that we can lay a strong foundation in children for healthy relationships in the future.