How do you talk with kids about LGBTQ stuff?
If you're Lindsay Amer, you sit down at a table with your best friend, Teddy, a stuffed bear, and have a conversation about queer topics.
Image via Queer Kid Stuff/YouTube, used with permission of Lindsey Amer.
Queer Kid Stuff is an educational project that teaches young kids about LGBTQ issues.
When Amer, 26, who uses they/them pronouns, toured a play during college to elementary schools, they learned how limited kids' access to LGBTQ topics can be. The play, "The Transition of Doodle Pequeño," is about a boy who likes to wear skirts, and the tour had to cancel at least one show because the community considered the topic controversial.
"That's kind of when I started to see that there was a real barrier for kids to this kind of work," explains Amer, who says they experienced that barrier growing up, too. As an androgynous kid who was mis-gendered constantly, Amer says, "I make Queer Kid Stuff for a young me as much as I make it for kids today."
Queer Kid Stuff episodes are about five minutes long and taught at about a preschool level.
Targeting a young audience felt important to Amer because kids start to learn and ingrain ideas about gender and binaries at a pretty young age.
"It's just about getting those ideas instilled early enough that you don't have to undo any negativity," says Amer. Some of the most popular episodes include topics such as "T is for Trans," "Why Is Pride in June?" and "Learn About Consent."
Image via Queer Kid Stuff/YouTube, used with permission of Lindsey Amer.
While young kids may not grasp all the concepts and terminology, Amer says those aren't the focus — the show is about acceptance.
"All they need to know is that they're OK being themselves, and everyone else is OK, and it's OK to be different," they say.
It can be really difficult to restructure ways of thinking about gender, and a simplistic, broken down explanation about LGBTQ topics can be really helpful for all ages.
"If you can really get to the core of what gender is and kind of reframe it for people, it's a lot easier for people to turn around and say 'Hmm, maybe what I've been thinking is not correct. Maybe what I was taught is not correct. Maybe I need to reframe this for myself,'" Amer says.
Image via Queer Kid Stuff/YouTube, used with permission of Lindsey Amer.
That message is for everyone, not just queer kids. Learning about queer and trans issues so often is reactive, like after a classmate or neighbor or family member presents or identifies in a way that is confusing to a child. In those instances, kids and adults can sometimes say hurtful things or ask intrusive questions, which places an unfair burden on queer kids and their families to be constantly self-advocating and educating other people.
When people look to the Queer Kid Stuff videos wanting to understand a friend's or classmate's or family member's identity, the burden of education shifts from the queer person and their family to the curious person.
Queer Kid Stuff videos help all viewers — queer identifying or not — to share the responsibility of becoming educated, empowered, and tolerant of all types of people.
Queer Kid Stuff provides representation and positivity for LGBTQ kids.
But, Amer adds, "Their friends need to be on board, too. Their environment needs to be on board — they need to be in a safe space, it can't just be in front of that screen."
There's more progress to be made on and off screens, but Amer's work is opening minds in much needed ways.
In honor of Pride Month, watch the Queer Kid Stuff video below and learn why we celebrate LGBTQ issues in June:
