cross-dressing, gender, genderism, homophobia, identity, support, trans
Karleen: In terms of Elena, who is five, um, they have, they haven’t quite caught up to that yet. I don't think the five year olds...they are definitely dissing people on gender. And it’s interesting, because she’ll come and tell me “Oh this girl at school, she really wants to be a boy, and so she hates herself”.
Tara: Wow.
Karleen: And she’s 5 you know. And I’m like “Well tell her, did you tell her about me? Did you tell her, like its okay!?” And then she goes, “She knows about you mom.”
Both: [laugh].
Karleen: So I was like, okay so on the one hand, I don't feel like she’s getting the, kind of, the specific language, homophobic language baiting, like the fag and the gay things. Uh, she doesn't come home with that. But in terms of the gender stuff, for sure. And she already told me this other little boy wants to be a girl, and everybody makes fun of him. And I tell her “Oh well you support, you know, you support him right?” And she’s just like “huh” so she’s thinking about that. But we have a lot of talks about that. And also my dad, is also a cross dresser.
Tara: Right.
Karleen: So, um, whenever, well he’s often in dresses so I can say “well um, you know your grandpa, is, always wears dresses, and he’s a boy, you know?” And so she’s like “yeah” so she has, I do do a lot of work with her just on, kind of that's just part of how people are. And even with that, she, uh can easily be swept into the um, you know the attacks on gender. So, yeah, I don't know, I mean, you have to start the work at the beginning.