I think I’ve mentioned this but my mom makes me put all the lgbtq+ books in my room. I think I kinda learnt why. She makes me put them in my room because of my brother. I assumed it was because quite a few of them have sexual themes. Which makes sense.
my brother recently asked me to read Heartstopper. He seemed interested and I think he really likes it. Becuase of a few of the mental health depictions in the fourth book I didn’t let him read that one. Like not that I have a problem with stuff like that in books but my brother is on the younger side and I personally don’t want him reading about self harm and eating disorders just yet. But like as most of us know it’s still quite fluffy and while it addresses subjects I would say up until book 3 it’s tween appropriate. There is also homophobia but like he asked me questions and I tried to help him understand. It’s also something he kinda knows about so
heah.
My mother decided to have a go at me for letting him read those books a few moments ago. In my defence when I gave him the books I asked him to ask our mom and he told me apparently she said “ok”. I’ve learnt she didn’t. Anyways she said she didn’t want him reading them because “he hasn’t figured him self out” which I think is sorta silly. Because I personally wouldn’t have figured myself out if it wasn’t for lgbtq+ rep in the media and books I read. We aren’t like sheltered from the community but nothing was explained to us. Sooo when I hit my period of questioning I didn’t really know what anything was. Like I was so fucking clueless. One of the things I asked my friend and google was “Am I straight if I want to date a girl” yeah. That’s what I fucking googled. Up until that point I only knew about males that are gay. And females that likes females. I didn’t know the term lesbian. Or anythinggggg. Like my friend came out to me as non-binary and I had no idea wtf that was. I felt sooo guilty and shitty when they came out to me and I had to ask what they meant. Anyways back to the point, without being exposed to media I would have been hella clueless and wouldn’t know much about anything. I think my mom should let my brother read whatever he wants (within reason for his age) without bias on lgbtq+ media so he can be educated unlike meeee. Who had to look up a lot of stuff and be very confused on a lot of stuff. Until I found like lgbtq+ webtoons and books. Where honestly the topics were addressed better and made it easier for me to understand. So yeah I guess this is a bit of a rant but like at the same time I’m explaining my views? Ahh tell me what you think?
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