What does that mean?” Listening first gives you a good idea of what your student wants to know and needs to know. What does ‘gay’ mean?” You could begin with, “Do you know why Alexia said that?” Or a student could say, “I heard that Omar’s dad is gay. If a second-grader says to you, “Alexia said that Ricardo is gay. It can be helpful to give concrete examples, such as “Tanya and Angela love each other, and they want to be family to each other.” Understand what the student is asking
Some women love and want to be partners with a man and some women love and want to be partners with a woman. You can just clarify that people love each other in different ways. Focus on love and relationshipsĪ discussion with elementary-age students about the meanings of “gay” or “lesbian” is a discussion about love and relationships. Throughout elementary school a student’s ability to understand what “gay” means and what your explanation means may increase with development. An answer can be as simple as: “‘Gay’ means two people of the same gender who love each other – two women or two men.” Try to answer the question honestly without overloading a student with information.
