Schmaltz on wry

What goes unspoken is that straight childhood is actually a thing, just an invisible, privileged thing. And, at times, not even that: adults fake-pairing up their children, teaching them about how they will grow up and marry someone of the opposite (assigned) gender, and terming friends girlfriend and boyfriend is forcing them into (straight) sexuality, which is frankly wrong and sick-making. Things that are not on: forcing people into kinds of sexuality, demarcating adulthood and childhood in ways that don’t acknowledge the formation of sexuality. Things that are okay: having consciousness of yourself as a sexual or romantic person at a young age, being allowed to develop that privately until the time comes.

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Sexuality, queerness, and children’s knowledge about themselves « Zero at the Bone

One of those things where I say “now that I’m a parent …” but, really, this is something I’ve been conscious of since babysitting and having to explain to an 8 year why I said that a famous footballer might have a boyfriend instead of assuming he had a girlfriend. Anyway, Chally puts it so bloody well. As ever.