Guide Shows Teachers How To Talk With Kids About Gay Marriage

Guide Shows Teachers How To Talk With Kids About Gay Marriage

The largest American LGBT civil rights organization and the largest teacher's union want to help educators talk to kids about gay marriage.

The educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the National Education Association on Friday released a guide for educators to talk with students about marriage equality. The guide was put out the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court declared bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and said states must recognize same-sex unions.

The guide, titled "Who Can Marry Whom? Inclusive Conversations About Marriage," includes sample conversations for teachers to have with students and a checklist for creating an inclusive school environment.

Here's one of the sample conversations:

“Can Jorge’s dads get married? I thought two men couldn’t get married.”
“Yes, his dads can get married now. This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court
decided that all the states should allow two men, two women, or a man and
a woman to get married.”

The checklist for an inclusive school environment asks teachers to consider whether they use inclusive language on school forms, whether school art displays diverse family structures, and whether students are exposed to diverse role models in literature.

"Do staff and educators treat all families with respect and avoid stereotyping or judgment when communicating with two mom and two-dad, single-parent, racially diverse and/or multi-linguistic families?" asks the checklist.

The Human Rights Campaign also recommends books for kids that highlight diverse families with same-sex parents.

We asked some of our teacher Twitter followers about how they plan to discuss the topic with their students after the Supreme Court ruling. Here's what they told us:

@HuffPostEdu give them the facts & let them create the dialogue. It's a huge achievement in human rights but don't want to push an agenda

— Ms. Phe (@Mspheclass) June 26, 2015

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