teachers, gay parents, ask, questions, assumptions, alienating, advice
Kevin: I would say continue to create a safe space for everyone. That’s the bottom line. Everybody needs to feel safe. Not just the students, but – but teachers and staff as well. And the other thing that occurs to me based on our experience is, if you – if you don’t know, if this is new for you, ask. Like, this is new for us too, and, you know, we have two kids. The eldest and the youngest, of course, because they’re twins. But this is all – if this is a new experience and you don’t know how to talk to gay parents, or how to talk about the children of alternative families, just ask. Like that’s the – that’s so important. I would rather have people ask the most basic questions about what do your kids call you [indicating himself] and what do they call you [indicating Mohan], than make assumptions and say things that are actually hurtful to us and kind of alienating for our kids. Because if our kids don’t think that it’s important that everybody else knows that he’s papa, and I’m daddy, that undermines things for them too, right? And that’s not helpful. So my advice is, if you don’t know, ask.