As Long As They’re Healthy…

Children holding handsFor most parents-to-be, once they find out they’re going to have a child, the biggest concern is that the child is healthy.  Sure, there may be a preference for one gender or the other, but there are so many other far more terrifying possibilities to worry about that no one in their right mind really gets upset about having a boy instead of a girl or vice versa.

But even if there are complications or issues, parents generally don’t say “Oh, my kid’s not perfect, so I’m going to toss him in the dumpster and start over”.  And if they did, they would be prosecuted, jailed, and vilified.  I know plenty of people who face challenges far more significant than trying to get their kids to eat broccoli — and it seems they love their kids even more for it.  Challenges that include dyslexia, autism, and even DIPG, a rare form of childhood brain cancer with a 0% survival rate.  Zero percent.  And I’ve known two sets of parents whose children have lost or will lose their battle with the disease.

In light of this, I simply cannot understand a parent who would abandon or mistreat a child because of something so innocuous as sexual orientation or gender identity.  If I were to kick my son out of the house because he likes avocado or put my daughter in therapy because she listens to Taylor Swift pretty much non-stop, people would denounce my actions, and rightly so.

So why, then, would anyone do the same simply because their child has a different preference in partners or was born with the wrong body parts?

Having children isn’t for everyone.  I get that.  Not everyone wants to or is willing to devote their life to supporting and caring for a child.  Pets are so much easier; plants even more so.  Better still, avoid them all and just travel and go to concerts and eat in fancy restaurants and have a good time.  Because being a parent is hard.  It requires dedication and sacrifice and letting a tiny person drop the most disgusting objects in the known universe in your outstretched hand, not only without vomiting, but with a giant smile on your face.  But if you can do that, then maybe you have the fortitude and strength of character to be a parent.

But if you can’t support your child for who they are and who they love, then chances are, you really, really shouldn’t be a parent.  Get yourself a dog or a cat or a Pet Rock.

Because if you can’t handle such a total non-issue as an LGBTQ child, how the hell are you going to handle something like DIPG?

 

This post is part of Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day 2016.

 

Tags: , , , ,

One Response to “As Long As They’re Healthy…”

  1. Dana says:

    Thanks for being such a stalwart supporter of Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day over the years!

Leave a Reply