Personally I think that someone shouldn't have to be scared to be open about their sexuality. Unfortunately the LGBT community is looked upon by heterosexuals as strange and are ostracized as soon as the information is revealed. That is just speaking on a general basis. There are always those who are open to other peoples beliefs and way of life. People have become much more understanding in the last few years, which is a good thing. But in general the people in the LGBT community are still looked at as different. I think that a big reason for that is that there isn't so much awareness about this subject at a younger age.
It seems to be that a lot of what we learn as a younger child sticks with us throughout of life. I definitely know that when I was smaller I wasn't exposed to anything LGBT. I do remember my first time hearing about it when I took a trip to P-town with my parents. There was a guy riding around on a bike in a tutu promoting the play that he was in. I thought it strange because I hadn't seen anything like it before. I asked my parents what that was and they simply explained that P-town was known for being a gay community. They didn't seem to pay any mind to it so neither did I.
Parents are always going to be the main source of what shapes a young individuals opinions. They're the only opinionated source you're exposed to when you're smaller. Luckily for me my parents were open to this kind of thing and I've never been exposed to an opposition of the gay community. I didn't know that there were people that were against it until the news was saturated with gay marriage legalization.
LGBT is something that should be taught to children. If it is taught to children in the right way that it's simply just something different and not something to hate, those students would find it odd that there are people who hate the gay community. My only concern as in this article is with parents. Naturally there will always be parents who don't want their child exposed to such a topic. But there doesn't have to be an overload of information either. They can simply be told that they exist and that its a part of our society.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/14/california.lgbt.education/
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