Sex is not a game nor an identity - it's a facet of relationship

The current foisting of sexual identity onto childhood is, to me, highly costly to personal development. Childhood should be, and has been in the past, a time to acquaint oneself with the world and develop one's relationship with it. It is not a time to determine "what you want to be when you grow up" or which sexual identity you choose.

Those who propose that focusing on LGBTQ+ will eliminate bullying have no foundational awareness of childhood - and in our day-and-age childhood extends through the teenage years.

Remember that humans enter the world as strangers to EVERYTHING and work incessantly at taking it in and sorting it out. We are born with an inate desire to make sense of things. An infant will drop his/her spoon repeatedly to determine if the same action produces the same result - over and over again.

As kids enter the larger community at school, their inate sense of order categorizes same vs. different. This is not inherently offensive - it's natural. A child overwhelmed with anxiety about their place in the world will be inclined to turn this awareness into proof that he/she is better than "the other."

To add another layer of identity is just plain cruel and highly premature. Relating to other humans is the task at hand - as humans, not as sex objects.

Sexual identity in childhood is false. Just as would be asking one who has never driven a car which they prefer to drive.

I have witnessed first hand the anxiety of a 3-yr-old (my granddaughter) when asked at preschool what she wanted to be when she grew up. A 3-yr-old has no concept of profession - has witnessed grocery-store clerks, nurses, parents, teachers - not much else. After the day at preschool when I picked up this granddaughter, she could not relinquish her agony over not knowing what to be. Finally, she tearfully explained: "But, Grandma. I want to be a Unicorn, and that's not a job...."

If we focus childhood on identifying which sexual acts they choose to identify with - we are leading them into a world of anxiety and away from the fundamental attention needed to acquire all the mental and emotional skills they need to navigate this world for a lifetime.

And life is far more than sex. Focusing on sex too early inadvertently proposes it as an END not a MEANS. Sexual relationships are (can be/should be) expressions of intimacy - not political statements, sports, acts of agression and dominance or self-assertion.